When Dixon Falls in Love
by crowfliesmyass
Summary: Remember when Glenn saved Rick's life in Atlanta? What if he wasn't alone? What if there was a young woman in the tank, too? What if Daryl fell in love with this young woman? DarylxOC
1. Chapter 1

Prologue

It was the perfect day. The sun was up, not a breeze and not a cloud in sight. Claire had just woken up. She peeled off her pajamas and stepped into the shower. She let out a sigh of relief as the hot water hit her pale skin. Claire squeezed shampoo on her hand and massaged it into her black hair. After she rinsed her hair, she stepped out, dried herself and put on her dark blue skinny jeans, Guns n Roses tank top, Doc Martins and black leather vest. She dried her hair and put it in a French plait; her usual hairstyle. She made her way to the kitchen and had breakfast. When she was done, she shoved the dishes into the dishwasher and went to work.

As soon as she climbed onto her motorcycle, she turned the radio on.

"This just in, the flu epidemic is now deadly. Please remain in your homes until further notice and -" she heard the reporter say before she turned it off. She started up the motorcycle and drove off. Maybe this day wasn't going to be so good after all.


	2. Chapter 2

**Minutes later**

"So you're looking for your wife and son, huh?" Claire asked him. He nodded.

"That's right. I hope they're safe," he said sadly. Claire noticed the sadness in his voice.

"Hey, we'll find them," she comforted him. He didn't say anything.

"Holy shit!" Claire exclaimed as soon as she saw Atlanta. It was completely empty. There were abandoned cars everywhere and every now and then, they'd see a lonesome walker. They rode past a bus and the horse started getting nervous.

"Whoa, take it easy, baby," Rick said to the horse. It calmed down and continued to walk. Suddenly, Rick's head shot up. He looked up at the sky.

"What is it?" Claire asked him. He ignored her at first, "Rick? What the fuck are you looking at?"

Once again, he ignored her and then he made the horse run towards something. The horse ran straight onto a road filled with walkers. Rick turned the horse around.

"Hold on!" Rick commanded. Claire held on for dear life. They went down another road but when they got to the middle, it was blocked.

"Shit!" Claire said. Rick looked back at the group of walkers. They were getting closer and the next thing they knew, they were on the ground.

"Oh my God!" Claire sobbed as they watched the walkers eat the horse alive.

"Over here!" Rick said and crawled underneath a tank. Claire followed him, and so did a few walkers. Claire and Rick shot a few, until Rick discovered a door leading to the inside of the tank. He let Claire climb in first. Once they were both inside, Rick shut the door.

"Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck!" Claire said to herself. Rick was breathing heavily. He noticed a dead body lying next to him. He took its gun and a few other things before its eyes opened.

"Rick!" Claire yelled and stabbed it in the head with her machete. Rick looked at her.

"Thanks," he said. She nodded. Then he got up stuck his head out of the top. He quickly came back inside and closed the door.

"What now?" Claire asked him. He gulped.

"Now we wait," he said and sat opposite her. They sat in silence for a while, and then the radio went off.

"Dumbasses," the voice said. Rick and Claire looked at each other, and then back at the radio. Claire got up and went to it.

"You guys in the tank, cozy in there?" the voice said. Rick and Claire were silent.

"You alive in there?" it asked. Rick jumped up, but bumped his head. Claire smiled, trying not to laugh. He answered the voice.

"Hello? Hello?" Rick asked.

"There you are. You had me wondering," the voice said. Claire grabbed the radio from Rick.

"Where are you? You outside? Can you see us right now?" she asked.

"Yeah, I can see you. You're surrounded by walkers. That's the bad news." Rick grabbed the radio from Claire.

"There's good news?" he asked.

"No," the person said. Rick looked back at Claire, who looked extremely worried.

"Listen, whoever you are. I don't mind telling you, I'm a little concerned in here," Rick said, a little irritated.

"Oh man, you should see yourselves from here. You'd have a major freak out!" the voice said. Claire took the radio again.

"Got any advice for us?" Claire asked, a little irritated herself.

"Yeah; I'd say make a run for it." Claire and Rick looked at each other again.

"That's it? Make a run for it?" Claire asked sarcastically.

"My idea isn't as dumb as it sounds; you got eyes on the outside here. There's one geek on top of the tank and the horse went down. You with me so far?" the person explained. Claire handed the radio over to Rick.

"So far," Rick said and waited for the person to continue.

"Okay the street on the other side of the tank is less crowded. If you move now while they're distracted, you stand a chance. Got ammo?"

"In that duffel bag I dropped out there and guns. Can I get to it?" Rick asked.

"Forget the bag, okay. It's not an option," the voice replied, "what do you have on you?"

Rick handed Claire the radio and checked his two guns.

"Hang on," Claire told the person."We have a Beretta with one clip. Fifteen rounds," Claire repeated after Rick.

"Make them count," the voice said, "jump off the right side of the tank. Keep going in that direction. There's an alley up the street, about 15 yards. Be there,"

Rick took the radio again. "Hey, what's your name?" he asked the person.

"Have you been listening? You guys are running out of time!" the voice said. Rick dropped the radio and grabbed a shovel. Claire took one, too.

"Ready?" Rick asked. She nodded and he opened the door on top. He hit the walker and climbed out with Claire following. They jumped off, but Rick fell and hurt his leg. "Rick!" Claire said and helped him up. She tried to put his arm over her shoulder, but he refused. She nodded and they went to the alley, shooting any zombies that tried to stop them. Claire aimed her gun but lowered it as soon as she noticed that he was human. He was an Asian kid.

"No! Not me!" he yelled and led them through the alley. "Faster!" he yelled. Rick and Claire moved faster until they got to a yellow ladder. The kid went up first, then Claire, then Rick. They jumped onto a fire escape to catch their breaths. "You're a dumbass," the kid told Rick. Claire smiled. She liked this kid already.

"Rick. Thanks"

The Asian kid looked at Ricks hand and hesitated before shaking it.

"Glenn," he said, "you welcome."

"I'm Claire," she said and shook Glenn's hand. Rick took out his hand gun and shoved it into Glenn's backpack. They looked down and noticed a walker trying to climb the ladder.

"Bright side: It'll be the fall that kills us," Glenn said while looking up at the long ladder. Rick looked at Claire. She nodded and the pair followed Glenn up the ladder. It was long, but was better that being eaten alive. They got to the top and crossed a small bridge to get to another building.

"Why'd ya save us?" Claire asked as they stopped in front of another ladder that led into a building. Glenn looked at her.

"I'm foolish, naïve and hope that if I ever get stuck, someone will do the same for me. Guess I'm a bigger dumbass than you," he explained, while glaring over at Rick. Claire smiled. They climbed down after Glenn through his backpack down. They ran through some kind of office and down some stairs.

"Got guests and there are four geeks in the alley!" Glenn told someone on his radio. When they reached the bottom of the stairs, they spotted four walkers. Just then, two heavily shielded men came running through a door and killed them all. All of them ran inside the building that the men came from. They shut the door behind them. They made their way into a nearby room and Claire was thrown against a cabinet by a blonde woman.

"You bitch, I'm gonna kill you!" the woman yelled and aimed her handgun at Claire's head.

"Chill out Andrea! Back off!" a brown-haired man said. Andrea ignored him.

"C'mon; ease up," a woman said.

"Ease up? You're kidding me! We're dead because of these stupid assholes," She spat. Claire narrowed her eyes.

"You wanna watch your fucking mouth?" Claire spat. The blonde woman gave her a dirty look. Rick came forward.

"Hey, just lower the gun," Rick said calmly. She finally gave in and started crying.

"We're dead!" she sobbed, "all of us. Because of you two."

"I don't understand," Rick said. The brown-haired man grabbed Rick's arm and showed him.

"Every geek out there heard you popping rounds!" a big built man said. Claire and Rick looked at each other.

"We would've died, you idiot!" Claire said angrily.

"You just rang their dinner bell," Andrea said. The brown-haired man looked at Claire.

"Get the picture?" he asked sarcastically. Rick looked at the door. One of the walkers was banging on the glass door of the shop with a rock. Everyone backed up.

"Oh God!" the big man said. Andrea looked at Rick.

"What the hell were you two doing out there?" she asked.

"Following the helicopter," Rick said. Everybody, including Claire looked at him weirdly. There was no helicopter.

"That's crap. There ain't no damn helicopter!" the big built man said.

"I saw it!" Rick said sharply.

"T-Dog, see if you can use that radio!" Glenn told the big man, "See if you can contact the others."

"Others?" Claire asked confused. Rick looked at Glenn.

"There's a refugee camp?" Rick asked. Glenn ignored him. The other woman looked at Rick.

"Yeah. The other 'refugees' are back at the camp. T-Dog sighed irritably.

"No damn signal! Maybe the rooftop?" he said. Then, there was a gunshot. Everybody looked up.

"Oh no. Was that Dixon?!" Andrea exclaimed. Everybody ran towards the stairs. When they reached the top of the building, there was a man in a leather waistcoat shooting walkers with a sniper rifle.

"Hey Dixon! Are you crazy!?" the brown-haired man yelled. The sniper let out a laugh.

"You oughta be more polite to a man with a gun!" he yelled. T-Dog walked towards him.

"Man, you're wasting bullets!" T-Dog yelled angrily.

"You think I'm gonna take orders from you? I don't think so bro. That'll be the day!" the sniper said coldly.

"That'll be the day?" he asked, "You got something you wanna tell me?"

"You wanna know the day? I'll tell you the day, 'Mr. Yo'. It's the day I take orders from a nigga!" The sniper yelled at T-Dog. T-Dog tried to punch him, but the sniper blocked it and threw him to the ground, hitting T-Dog's face with the rifle in the process. Everybody stepped forward.

"Hey Merle, that's enough!" the brown haired man yelled. Meanwhile, Claire tried to stop him, but got punched in the process. She fell to the ground in pain and then everything went black.


	3. Chapter 3

Just so it's out there, I don't own shit...except for Claire.

Please enjoy.

**A few hours later**

"Claire! Claire!" a voice yelled. Her eyes slowly opened.

"W-what?" she breathed. She was lying on the ground in an office.

"We gotta go! Glenn and Rick found a van. We're getting the hell outta here!" the woman said. Claire nodded and got up. The brown-haired guy helped her to balance. When she was ready, they she followed them to the truck. When they got to the rendezvous point, they heard a car alarm getting closer and closer.

"What the hell is that?" Andrea asked. They all listened carefully. When the sound faded away, they opened up the gate. There was a truck parked up against it and everybody climbed in. T-Dog came running and quickly jumped in, closing the door once he was in. They drove off and heard the alarm once more.

"What is that?" the woman asked.

"Glenn." Rick replied. The rest of the ride was silent, apart from the car alarm that was following them.

Few minutes later

The truck slowed down and Claire, who was riding shotgun, got a bit nervous.

"Where are we?" she asked Rick.

"Home," T-Dog said. The car stopped and Claire could see a few people, but no one she knew, except Glenn. She stepped, followed by Rick. They could see people hugging their families. Rick and Claire looked at each other. Right now he was all she had and vise verse.

"Hey helicopter guy and sleeping beauty! Come say hello!" the brown-haired guy yelled. The pair walked over to him. There was a man standing next him. He was tall and had curly hair.

"The guy's a cop, just like you. Not sure who she is though," he told the other guy. The other guys face dropped as soon as he saw Rick. Rick stood there for a while. Claire noticed a little boy and a woman looking at him too. Rick saw them.

"Oh my God!" he finally said and ran towards them.

"Dad!" the boy yelled and ran towards Rick. The woman ran after him. The boy jumped into Ricks arms and Rick fell to the ground, crying.

"Rick?" the woman said and joined in.

"Lori!" Rick exclaimed and hugged her. She was crying too. Claire felt a lump in her throat, but swallowed. There was no way that she would cry in front of these strangers. Well not now at least.

Evening.

Claire and Rick settled in quickly and met everybody. Apparently Rick had found his family and even his best friend. Claire was happy for him. She had made some friends herself; there was Lori, Rick's wife, Jacqui, the woman from Atlanta, Dale, the old but really nice man, Carl, Rick and Lori's son, Glenn, T-Dog, and Carol. They were all good people. Andrea hated her for some reason and the feeling was mutual. Amy was ok and Ed, she tried her best to avoid. The rest were fine. She sat down by the fire, where everyone else was sitting. Lori looked at her and smiled.

"So, how'd you meet Rick?" she asked. Rick and Claire smiled at each other.

"He kinda found me. I was hiding out in this farmhouse and he came and I originally wanted to blast his brains out, but figured, you know…guy's a cop," Claire explained. Lori laughed.

"I'm glad you didn't kill him," she said. Claire smiled. Shane came and sat down.

"So, have you given any thought to Daryl Dixon?" Dale asked Shane,"he won't be happy to hear his brother got left behind."

Everybody looked at each other.

"I'll tell him; I dropped the key. It's on me," T-Dog offered. Rick shook his head.

"I cuffed him," he said.

"It's not a competition. I don't mean to bring racism into this, but it might sound better coming from a white guy," Glenn spoke up. Everyone nodded in agreement.

"I'll tell him," Claire offered. Rick looked at her and opened his mouth to say something, "Before you start, maybe he's the type that doesn't hit girls. I reckon he'll be really mad"

"She's got a point," Shane said. Claire nodded to say 'thanks for the backup'.

"I'll do it in the morning, when he gets back. Just show me who he is," Claire said and got up. She yawned. "I'm gonna get some rest. Damn that Merle guy can punch!"

Everybody chuckled and watched her go to her tent.

"She's a good person," Dale said. They nodded in agreement. "I don't think Daryl is going to like her though, but tough."

Again. They chuckled.

Next morning.

Claire yawned and opened her eyes. She was in a tent and it was light outside. She got up and looked for her dark blue skinny jeans, Gun n Roses tank top, Doc Martins and her leather waistcoat.

"What the hell?" she said to herself as she picked up the clothes that was in a neat pile. It consisted of a pair of khaki skinny pants and a white tank top. Thank God her Docs were still there. She put her black hair into a high ponytail and stepped out of the tent. There was another one next to hers. She wondered who slept there. She walked over to the RV, where everybody was. She noticed Carol ironing her Guns n Roses tank top.

"Mornin'!" Claire said to Carol. She smiled.

"Good morning. Hope you don't mind too much," she said, while pointing to the ironing board. Claire shook her head.

"Of course not. Thank you." Just then, there was a scream. Claire grabbed her handgun and ran towards the scream. Everybody else followed.

"Dad!" the voice yelled. It was Carl.

"Baby!" Lori yelled and ran towards him. We ran into the forest and bumped into Sophia, Carl and Jacqui.

"You guys hurt?" Lori asked and hugged Carl and Sophia. Rick, Shane, Glenn, Morales and Claire surrounded what was scaring them; a walker.

"Holy shit!" Claire exclaimed and watched it eating a deer alive. Amy and Andrea stayed back and gagged at the sight. The walker got up, but Rick hit it with a fire poker. Everybody started beating it until Dale cut its head off.

"That's the first one we've had up here. They never come this far up the mountain," Dale said.

"They must be running out of food in the city," Jim stated.

Then they heard something move in the bushes. Claire aimed her gun at the figure.

"Son of a bitch! That's my deer!" the man exclaimed. Claire lowered her gun, "look at it all knotted up. Filthy, disease carrying, motherless bastard!"

"This Dixon?" Claire asked. Shane nodded.

"Calm down, son. That's not helping," Dale said calmly. Daryl walked towards him.

"What do you know about it old man? You take that stupid hat and go back down to Golden Pond!" he said. Claire fought back a smile. Daryl went up the deer and retrieved his bows, "been tracking it for miles! You think we can cut around this chewed up part right here?" he asked while pointing at the deer.

"No no. We can't risk that," Shane said. Daryl sighed.

"That's a damn shame. Well, I got some squirrel. A dozen or so; It'll have to do." He said before accidently kicking the walkers head. Its mouth opened. Claire gagged.

"Jesus!" she said to herself. Daryl looked at her, and then looked back at the head.

"C'mon people, what the hell?" he said and shot its eye with his crossbow. He took the arrow out, "It's gotta be the brain. Don't you know nothin'?" he walked back to the camp. Everyone looked at Claire. She ignored them and followed Daryl back to the camp. The guys followed her.

"Merle! Merle! Get your ass out here! Got us some squirrel! Let's stew 'em up!" Daryl yelled and threw the squirrels on the ground, not knowing that Merle wasn't there.

"Daryl?" Claire said. He stopped and turned around.

"Who the hell are you?" he asked and stepped forward.

"Name's Claire, "she said and put her hands on her hips. He scratched the back of his neck.

"What do you want, woman?" he demanded. She sighed.

"I wanna talk," she said and took a step forward. He put is crossbow down.

"Look, if you're pregnant or have problems, you should talk to someone else," he said and looked at Lori. She rolled her eyes.

"I don't have problems, and I sure as hell ain't pregnant. It's about Merle."

"What about him?" he asked, getting a bit worried.

"There was an incident in Atlanta," she said and crossed her arms. Daryl looked at Shane, the Glenn, and then Rick.

"He dead?" his voice croaked. She shook her head.

"I don't know."

"He either is or he ain't!" He yelled. Rick stepped forward.

"Look, there's no easy way of sayin' it, so I'll just say it," Rick said. Daryl turned to him.

"Who are you?" Daryl asked.

"Rick Grimes."

"Rick Grimes?" Daryl mocked, "You got something you wanna tell me?"

"Your brother was a danger to us all, so I handcuffed him on a roof. He's still there," Rick explained.

Daryl turned around and wiped his face, "Let me process this. Saying you handcuffed my brother to a roof? And you left him there!?"

"Yeah." Rick said. Daryl lost it and tried to punch Rick. Shane tackled him down in a head lock.

"Hey, easy now!" Claire told Shane.

"Hey. I'm sorry about this. But fighting won't solve shit," she said nicely. Daryl calmed down and Shane let him go.

"If it helps, I chained the door so the geeks can't get to him," T-Dog said. Daryl was trying his hardest not to cry.

"To hell with all of ya! At least tell me where he is, so I can go get him!" Daryl demanded.

"We'll show you," Claire said, "but only if you pull yourself together."

"Whatever," Daryl mumbled. Claire mumbled 'asshole' under her breath and walked to her tent. She lay on her stomach and closed her eyes for a few seconds until she heard someone sobbing. She lifted her head. It sounded like it was coming from the tent next to hers. Claire got up and climbed out of her tent. She slowly moved towards the other tent. She leaned in listened carefully. It was Daryl. She felt sorry for him.

"You want him; you get off your ass and go get him!" Claire said to him. He went silent. She decided to give him some privacy and went over to Lori, Shane, Rick and T-Dog.

"Hey," Rick said. She nodded slightly.

"I think we should go get this guy," he said. Lori nodded in agreement. Claire sighed and nodded. Shane laughed.

"Why are you doing this for him? You don't owe him shit!" Shane asked Rick. He shrugged.

"Doesn't matter," he replied and went to his tent to get his things.

"Could you tell me why would you risk your life for a douche bag like Merle Dixon?" Shane asked Rick. Daryl stepped up.

"Hey. Choose your words more carefully," he told Shane.

"Oh. I did. Douche bag's what I meant," Shane replied. Claire laughed.

"So just you and Daryl, huh?" Lori asked. Rick looked at Daryl and then turned to Glenn.

"C'mon!" Glenn moaned.

"You know the way. You've been there before; in and out, no problem. You said so yourself. It's not fair for me to ask, I know that. But I'd feel a lot better if you came along," Rick explained.

"That's just great; now you're gonna risk three people now?" Shane said coldly.

"Four," T-Dog said. Daryl laughed.

"My day just gets better and better, don't it?" he said sarcastically, while cleaning his arrows.

"Make that six," Claire said, "I'll get my shit."

"You're putting everybody at risk. You saw that walker; it was here, it was in camp. They're moving out of the cities. We need every able body we got. We need 'em here, we need 'em to protect camp," Shane told Rick. Claire was getting a little irritated.

"Seems to me like you need more guns," she said. Rick looked at her.

"Right! Guns!" Glenn exclaimed.

"What guns?" Shane asked confused.

"Six shotguns, two high power rifles and over a dozen handguns," Rick explained. He carried on explaining, but Claire sat down and started talking to Daryl.

"You happy?" she teased.

"Why are you comin?," he spat. She shrugged.

"Nothing better to do. Besides, you're kinda cute when you cry," she teased and walked to the van. She hopped in the passenger seat and Daryl climbed in the back. "C'mon let's go!" he yelled. Rick climbed in next to her and T-Dog and Glenn hopped in the back. Rick handed Claire bolt cutters.

"Hold this," he said and started up the truck. During the ride, Claire couldn't help but feel that someone was staring at her, but whenever she looked back, no one was looking in her direction. She dug around in a few compartments and found a pair of sunglasses. She put them on.

"Do they suit me?" she asked Rick and pouted. He laughed and shook his head.

"They're too small for your big ass head," Daryl joked. She turned around and stuck out her middle finger.

"Yeah well fuck you too," she said. Daryl, Rick and Glenn laughed. Finally the car stopped.

"We walk from here," Glenn said. Claire hopped out and when she walked past Daryl, she handed him the bolt cutters.

"The least you could do is carry the fucking bolt cutters," she said. He spat on the ground. Her shoulder knocked his as she angrily walked past him. All four guys watched as she quickly walked ahead of them.

"What did you do?" Glenn asked.

"Beats me," Daryl smirked and walked behind her. Rick, T-Dog and Glenn followed. They got to the building that Rick handcuffed Merle to. They crept in and Rick signaled them to stop; there was a walker. Daryl walked towards it and aimed his crossbow.

"Damn. That is one ugly skank!" he said to himself before shooting her. When the coast was clear, they made their way to the top of the building. T-Dog broke the padlock open and they made their way to Merle.

"Merle!" Daryl yelled out. There was no reply. Claire walked over to where Rick handcuffed him. There was nobody. When Claire saw what was lying on the ground, she covered her mouth.

"Holy shit!" she said. Daryl came over to see what all the fuss was about. When he saw it, his face dropped.

"NO! NO!" he yelled, fighting back his tears. He aimed his crossbow at T-Dog. Rick aimed his gun at Daryl.

"I won't hesitate. I don't care if every walker in this city hears it," Rick threatened.

Claire looked at Daryl.

"Drop it, Rick," her voice said. Daryl looked at her and noticed how worried she was. He stopped lowered his gun. So did Rick. Then he started sobbing. As soon as he pulled himself together, he took a cloth out of his pocket and picked up the hand. He shoved it in Glenn's backpack. The group made their way down a different flight of stairs. "Merle?" Daryl yelled. No answer.

"Hey, Dixon! You down here?!" Claire yelled. Still no answer. The group found themselves in some kind of office. There was a walker, but Claire quickly took it down. They went through a door and noticed two dead walkers. "Well he managed to take down these two sons of bitches. One handed," Daryl said. They made their way through the building and found lots of clues. Daryl came to a conclusion that Merle was still out there, fighting his way out, and they made a plan to get the weapons. Daryl, Glenn and Claire made their way to their posts.

"You got some balls for a Chinaman," Daryl told Glenn. When Glenn told Daryl that he was actually Korean, Claire called Daryl and idiot. Glenn ran to get the weapons, while Claire and Daryl waited.

"You like hanging with the guys?" he asked. She didn't look at him.

"I'm sorry about Merle."

"Sure."

"No, really. I know how it feels to lose someone that close."

"Thanks. Maybe you're not that much of a bitch after all."

"Yeah and maybe if you weren't such an ass, we would be friends."

Just then, some teenage kid appeared. Claire aimed her handgun at him.

"Who the hell are you?!" she demanded.

"What do you want?" the kid asked.

"I'm looking for my brother; he's hurt real bad. You seen him?" Daryl asked. The teenager didn't reply, instead he started shouting.

"You better shut the fuck up!" Claire said. The kid just yelled even louder. Daryl knocked him down and told him to shut up, but then two guys showed up.

"What the hell?" Claire said and looked down at Daryl. One of the men started kicking him and hitting him with a baseball bat, while the other one held Claire down.

"Get off me you chickenshit!" Claire yelled and tried to reach her gun that was knocked out of her hand. Then Glenn came and the guys started going after him for the bag. Glenn tried to run away, but tripped in front of the fence. The two guys started beating him. Claire looked at Daryl, who was lying there in pain. She saw his crossbow and immediately reached for it. Claire had no idea how to use it, but shot still managed to shoot of the men in the butt. He held it in pain as the other one grabbed Glenn.

"Let go of me!" Glenn yelled, but they dragged him off. Daryl was now on his feet and grabbed the crossbow from Claire. He aimed it at the guys head, but it was too late. He was about to run after the car, but there were too many walkers.

"Daryl!" Claire yelled and pulled him back by grabbing his shirt. She slammed the gate closed and walkers started to crowd around it. She turned around looked at the teenager.

"You little piece of shit!" she yelled and punched him in the face. He hit the ground. She was about to kick him, but Rick came and pulled her away.

"Whoa whoa. Calm down!" Rick said and held her back.

"I'm gonna kick your nuts up into your throat!" she yelled at the kid, while Rick and T-Dog held her back.

"His little bastard hommie friends took Glenn!" Daryl yelled. T-Dog noticed the walkers trying to get in.

"We gotta go!" He yelled and ran for the ladder. Daryl grabbed Glenn's backpack that he dropped and led the kid to the ladder. Rick and Claire grabbed the bag of guns that Glenn dropped and made their way back to the office. Daryl threw the kid on a chair.

"Those men you were with. We need to know who they are," Rick said and crouched down beside him.

"I ain't telling you nothing," the kid spat. Claire pointed her gun at him.

"Then you serve no purpose!" she yelled. Rick stood up and grabbed the gun.

"Calm down, Claire," he said. She sighed and walked to the other side of the room.

"Jesus. What the hell happened back there?" T-Dog asked.

"I told you; his douche bag friends came and jumped us!" Daryl yelled, walking up and down.

"That bitch jumped me first!" the kid argued. Claire heard this and went to him.

"You listen here you little prick. You call me a bitch one more time and I promise you, I will not hesitate okay? I will fuck you up so much that your own damn mother won't even recognize you anymore. Understood? Now have you seen a guy called Merle around?" She spat while holding his collar.

"Merle? What kind of a name is Merle? I wouldn't name my dog Merle!" the kid mocked.

"Damn you!" Daryl yelled and tried to kick him. Rick pulled him back. Daryl went over to Glenn's backpack and took out Merle's hand. "Wanna know what happened to the last guy that pissed me off?" he asked and threw the hand at the teen. He jumped up and started screaming. He tripped and fell down. Daryl grabbed his collar. "We'll start with the feet this time," he threatened the kid. Rick pulled him back again.

"The men who took or friend; all we wanna do is talk to them. See if we can work something out," Rick explained in a calm tone. The kid gave in and told them where his friends were. The group made their way there. It was an old, run down building. There were wooded doors that led to the inside. T-Dog got up on top of the building next to it and aimed the sniper rifle down, just in case.

"One wrong move, you get an arrow in your ass. Just so you know," Daryl said to the kid. The kid raised an eyebrow. "I'll just take it out and shove it up yours."

"Do us all a favor," Claire joked. Daryl gave her a dirty look. They climbed through a broken fence and walked towards the wooden doors. The door opened and Rick, Daryl and Claire all aimed their weapons at the kid's head. Just in case. A few men came out.

"You okay, little man?" One of them asked the kid. The teen shook his head.

"They're gonna cut off my feet!" he sobbed. The man looked at Rick.

"Cops do that?" he asked sarcastically.

"Not him; this Redneck over here," he said and looked at Daryl, "He cut off some dude's hand. He showed it to me!"

"It's that bitch over there who shot me in the ass with an arrow!" another man said and aimed his revolver at Claire. She was angry.

"Chill, Chill," the other man said. He looked at Daryl, "Is it true? You want his feet? That's pretty sick, man."

"Yeah well your face is sick!" Claire spat. Rick looked at her to tell her to knock it off. She got the message.

"We just wanna have a calm discussion," Rick told the man.

"The redneck threatens to cut off his feet, she puts an arrow in his ass and you want a calm discussion? You fascinate me. Besides he don't look like he's related to you,"

"Well he's with us," Rick said.

"You got my brother in there?" Daryl butted in.

"Sorry, we're fresh out of white guys. We only got Asian. Interested?"

"Look, we have one of yours, you have one of ours. It's a fair trade," Claire said.

"It doesn't sound fair to me," he replied, "My people got attacked. What about them? More to the point; where's my bag of guns?"

"Your bag? Bitch please!" Claire smirked to herself.

"You're mistaken," Rick argued with the man.

"Oh I don't think so."

"It's my bag of guns" Rick assured the man.

"The bag was in the street. Anybody could come around and say it was theirs. I'm supposed to take your word? I take what's mine," the man claimed. Daryl and Claire raised their guns.

"You could do that. Or not," Rick said and looked up at T-Dog. The man yelled something and three figures appeared on top of the building. One of them was Glenn.

"Tell you what; you come back with the guns or come back locked and loaded. We'll see who spills more blood," the man proposed and walked back into the building. His group followed him and shut the door. Daryl, Rick, T-Dog, Claire and the kid made their way to a nearby building, where the bag of guns was.

"The guns are worth gold. Go back and protect your family and put food on the table," Daryl told Rick. "You gonna give that up for that kid?"

"Hey, that kid saved our asses. Now it's our turn to return the favor," Claire said. Daryl looked at her, "There's nothing keeping you two here. You should head back to the camp."

"And tell them what?" T-Dog asked. Rick and Daryl looked at each other. Daryl nodded and looked at T-Dog. He nodded too. The four of them loaded the guns.

"C'mon, this is nuts!" the kid said and got up. Claire went over to him and pointed to the ground.

"Sit." He sat down. She went over to him and covered his mouth with a cloth.

"Get up," she commanded. He got up and the group walked back to the run down building, with Daryl aiming his rifle at the kid. When they finally arrived, the doors opened and they stepped inside.

"I see my guns," the man from earlier on said while looking at Rick, "but they're not all in the bag."

"That's because they're not yours," Claire said bluntly.

"Let's just shoot these fools right now," another man said.

"You said come locked and loaded," Rick told them, causing them to ready their weapons. Rick aimed his shotgun at the man's head, "Okay, we're here." Suddenly, an old woman emerged from the crowd. She was short and was wearing a night gown.

"Go back with the others!" someone told her. She ignored them and pushed through the crowd. It seemed that she was worried about something. Claire, Rick, Daryl and T-Dog gave each other strange looks. The woman looked at them.

"Who are those people?" she asked. The man, who appeared to be her Grandson tried to stop her but she pushed him back and walked towards Rick.

"Don't you take him!" she yelled.

"Ma'am, I'm not here to arrest your grandson."

"What do you want him for?" she asked.

_Okay what's going on? Claire thought to herself. _

"He's helping us locate a missing person," Claire said in the nicest way possible, "His name's Glenn."

The woman smiled. "The Asian boy?" she asked. Claire nodded. "Come, I show you!" she said and took Claire's hand. Claire looked back at the others and shrugged.

"Let 'em pass!" the man told his people. They formed a path. The further they walked, the more they realized what the place was; an old age home. The woman led them to Glenn, who was assisting a man in a wheelchair.

"Is he okay?" Claire asked and slung her rifle on her shoulder. The old woman nodded.

"He is now," she said. Claire knelt down next to the man.

"I got it," she told the man that was pumping an Asthma pipe into the man's mouth. He nodded and handed it over. The man, Rick, Glenn, Daryl, T-Dog and the other man walked into a room while Claire stayed behind and helped the man.

"Hello. My name is Claire," she said calmly. Once the man was okay, he smiled at her.

"You remind me of my granddaughter. Just as pretty, too," he said. Claire smiled.

"Thank you, sir," she said. She looked at the room that the others were in and caught Daryl looking at her.

"You a nurse?" the old man asked. She immediately broke eye contact with Daryl and looked at the man.

"No, but I had to look after my granddad once," she said. He nodded. She felt something touch on her arm and looked down. It was a dog. She picked it up and held it in front of her face.

"This a rat or a dog?" she asked herself. The dog's tail wagged. She held it close and hugged it.

"Claire?" someone asked from behind. She turned around and saw the guys.

"Hello?" she asked. Rick looked at the dog.

"Time to go."

She put the dog down and said goodbye to the elders. The group left and made their way back to the truck.

"We lost half of our weapons to old farts that are going to die anyway," Daryl said. Claire sighed.

"I have never come across a bigger asshole than you," she said. Daryl laughed, but soon stopped after noticing something; the truck was gone. They stood dead still.

"Where the hell's our van?" Daryl asked.

"Who would take it?" Glenn asked. Rick and Daryl looked at each other.

"Merle," Daryl said. Claire sighed and started walking.

"Where are you going?" T-Dog asked. Claire continued.

"I'm going back to the camp."

"You're gonna walk?" Glenn asked. Claire stopped.

"Well, I was hoping my magic carpet would suddenly appear," she replied sarcastically. The guys looked at each other then started walking too. She walked in front of them the whole time. It was dark by the time they reached the camp, but as soon as they got closer, they heard screaming and gunshots.

"Let's move!" Rick yelled and started sprinting. The rest followed. When they reached the camp, it was complete chaos; there were bodies lying around and blood everywhere. Rick and Glenn immediately started to shoot. Soon Daryl, Claire a T-Dog followed. A walker managed to grab hold of Claire and she fell down.

"Let go of me you ugly fucker!" she yelled. She grabbed hold of her machete and hacked the creature's head off. She pushed the lifeless body off and got up. Once the camp was clear of walkers, Lori, Carl and the others came out of the RV. Glenn looked around.

"No no no no!" he sobbed. Claire closed her eyes and breathed in. Then out. She opened her eyes and saw Andrea leaning over a body and crying. The first person that came to mind was Amy. Claire put her hand in front of her mouth. "My good God!" she whispered. Everybody was crying. She looked around once more and headed to her tent. She took off her pants and put on her pajama shorts. She exchanged the tank top that Carol gave her for her own black one. Claire climbed into her sleeping bag and forced herself to ignore the crying. Slowly, she fell asleep.


	4. Chapter 4

**Next morning**

Claire opened her eyes sat up. She yawned and got up, looking for her clothes. She opened up her tent a bit, just to see what was happening. She noticed her leather vest, skinny jeans and Gun n Roses tank top. They were in a neat pile outside her tent. She quickly climbed out of her tent to get them.

"Jesus girl, what the hell are you wearin'?!" she heard someone ask. She got such a fright that she dropped her clothes. It was Daryl and she was in her extremely short pajama shorts and a tank top.

"Can I help you with something?" she asked awkwardly and blushed. He scratched the back of his head.

"Look, if you don't like seein' me, you should move your damn tent," he said and quickly looked away.

"You gonna stand there and stare at me like a perv?" She teased.

"You wish," Daryl retorted and walked away. She bit her lip while watching him walk for a while but then climbed back into her tent and to get dressed. Meanwhile Daryl swung his cross bow over his shoulder and walked towards Rick and the others. He couldn't help but think about Claire.

_No, Daryl. She's a bitch. _He thought to himself and tried to get her out of his head.

_She's a fucking beautiful bitch. No. Yes. No. Oh God no. Damn you Dixon._

He took a deep breath. He stopped when he got to the group. He looked at Andrea, who was cradling a dead Amy.

"We gotta kill her," he said. The others looked at him and remained silent. "You can't be serious. The dead girl's a timebomb!"

"What do you suggest?" Rick asked. Daryl moved closer.

"Take the shot," he said to Rick, "Clean, in the brain, from here. Hell, I can hit a turkey between the eyes from this distance!"

"No. For God's sakes, let her be," Lori said and sat down. Rick looked at Daryl and shrugged. He spat and walked away.

"Wake up, Jimbo! We got some work to do!" Daryl said as he walked past a day dreaming Jim. Daryl noticed Morales struggling to lift a body and helped. They dragged it to the fire but got interrupted by Glenn.

"Hey, what are you guys doing?" Glenn asked,"Our people go over there! We don't burn them! We bury them." Daryl and Morales looked at him and nodded. They dragged the body to wear had pointed. Claire came out of her tent and tied her hair up. She walked over to Carl and Sophia.

"Hey. You two okay?" she asked nicely. She knelt down and smiled.

"I'm glad you're okay," Carl said and hugged her. She was taken aback, but hugged him anyway. She broke the hug and looked at Sophia.

"You two are the bravest kids I have ever met," she told them. Sophia smiled and hugged are too. She looked up at Rick and Lori, who were watching them. They smiled and Lori mouthed 'thanks'. Claire got up and ruffled Carl's hair while walking towards the dead bodies that were burning.

"Jesus," she said to herself.

"A walker got him! A walker bit Jim!" Jacqui yelled. Everybody, including Claire drew their attention to her.

"Show it to us," Daryl demanded. Jim grabbed a shovel and everybody backed away.

"Easy now, Jim," Shane said calmly. Claire snuck up behind him and grabbed his arms. He dropped the shovel and Daryl ran up to him to expose the bite.

"I'm okay!" Jim assured everyone. They ignored him. When Daryl saw the bite, he backed away. Claire noticed this and let him go. Shane told Jim to sit next to the RV, while the rest discussed a plan.

"I say we put a pick-axe in his head," Daryl suggested. Shane looked at him.

"Is that what you'd want?" he asked Daryl.

"Yeah, I'd thank you while you did it."

"I hate to say it and never thought I would, but maybe Daryl's right," Dale said.

"Jim's not a monster, Dale. He's a sick, sick man. We go down that path then where do we draw the line?" Rick argued.

"The line's pretty clear; zero tolerance for walkers," Claire said to Rick. Everybody looked at her.

"What if we can get him help?" Rick asked, "I heard the CDC is working on a cure."

"Heard that too. I heard a lot of things before the world went to hell," Shane said. Then he and Rick started arguing about whether the CDC was still running. Daryl looked back at Jim and ran towards him.

"Well you guys go get an Aspirin, I'll take care of this asshole!" he yelled and nearly killed Jim with his pick-axe. Rick pointed his gun at Daryl.

"We don't kill the living," Rick said. Daryl lowered the axe.

"That's funny coming from a man that just put a gun to my head," Daryl coldly said. Shane told him to drop the axe. Daryl ignored him and stormed off. Claire followed him and grabbed a pick-axe too. She helped him impale the dead people, to prevent them from turning. When they got to Ed, Carol came over.

"I'll do it. He's my husband," she said to them. Daryl handed her his pick-axe. They watched her crush Ed's head over and over, while sobbing. When she was done, she gave the axe back to Daryl.

"Hey, you're a strong person. I know that you will pull through this," Claire said to her. Carol weakly smiled at her and nodded, then walked off. Claire looked back at Daryl and he stepped closer to her. Her stomach felt really weird. He was about to say something, but she interrupted.

"Look, I'm sorry about your brother," she said. He nodded and continued to impale the bodies. She dropped the axe and sat down. "How long do you think we'll survive this mess?" she asked.

"Long enough," he simply replied. She sighed.

"C'mon let's bury 'em," Daryl said and started loading the bodies onto the back of the pickup truck. She helped him and climbed in the passenger's seat.

"Something wrong with your legs, girl?" Daryl joked and climbed into the driver's seat. She ignored him and he started up the car. They drove up to the graves and buried them before the others came to pay their respects.


	5. Chapter 5

The group decided to go to the CDC to help Jim but halfway through the trip, they gave up. He asked them to leave him behind and they did so. Morales and his family left the group. They decided to go to the CDC anyway to find shelter. When they got there, at first, they thought it was abandoned and decided to move on, but Rick started shouting at the camera.

"Walker!" Carl yelled and ran behind his mother. Claire drew her bow and arrow and hit it. Then the group started arguing about where they were going to go. They started walking, but Rick and Claire saw the camera move.

"Did you see that!?" Claire asked Rick. He ignored her and started banging on the shutters. Claire joined in. Shane and Lori tried to stop them.

"I know you're in there!" Rick shouted. Shane told him to shut up.

"Please! We have no food!" Claire yelled. Shane tried to pull her away but she continued to yell at the camera. Lori tried to shut Rick up but it was no use. Shane dragged Claire away from the shutters.

"You can hear us!" She and Rick started yelling. Then suddenly, the shutters opened and everybody slowly made their way inside.

"Hello?" Rick yelled as he walked inside.

"Close the doors and watch for walkers!" Shane said to Daryl. A man suddenly appeared on the balcony.

"Any infected?" he yelled.

"We had one, "Rick replied.

"Why are you here? What do you want?"

"A chance," Rick said. The guy raised an eyebrow.

"That's asking an awful lot these days," he said and looked at everybody. He sighed. "You all submit to a blood test; that's admission price." Rick nodded.

"We can do that," he said. The man nodded and told them to bring their things inside. After the blood test, he showed them the kitchen and served them diner. Claire poured everybody a glass of wine and looked at Carl. "How about you, little man?" she joked. Everybody laughed, "You know, even kids drink wine in Italy and France," she said. Lori laughed.

"Well when Carl is in Italy or France, he can have some," she said strictly. Rick laughed.

"A little won't hurt," he said. Lori gave in and handed him her glass. Carl took a sip.

"EWWW!" he exclaimed with a disgusted face. Everybody laughed.

"Better stick to your soda!" Shane joked. Claire looked over at Glenn.

"Not you, Glenn, "she said. Glenn looked confused.

"What?" he asked. Daryl and Claire looked at each other and grinned.

"I wanna see how red your face can get!" Daryl joked. Glenn accepted the challenge and stared drinking. All of a sudden, Rick tapped his glass and stood up.

"We haven't thanked our host properly!" he said and looked at Dr. Jenner. Everybody raised their glasses and thanked him. He nodded and smiled. Then Shane started asking him all these questions and made everything awkward.

"Dude, you are such a buzzkill!" Claire said to Shane, a bit irritated. After diner, Dr. Edmund Jenner showed everybody their rooms. Claire went into her room and put her bags down, then changed to her pajamas. She put on one of the nightgowns that were in the bathroom and walked to the recreation room, where Carl, Sophia, Carol and Lori were. She sat down in front of the TV and picked up the X-Box controller. Carl came and sat next to her.

"Miss my X-Box," he said. Claire smiled and put the controller down.

"Me too. Well it was my boyfriend's, but I used it more than him," she said, remembering the days that she would come home and play Halo.

"C'mon kids, bedtime," Carol said and got up. Carl said goodnight to Claire and went to his room. She got up and went to hers, too, when she Shane walked in. She walked past Daryl's room and the door was open. He was sitting on his couch, cleaning his arrows. She couldn't help but notice how his wet, chocolate colored hair, roofed his dark emerald eyes. His was wearing his boxers and a vest. Claire got that weird feeling again, as she watched his every move. Daryl lifted his head and looked at her. She was too lost in thought to notice.

"Yes?" he asked. She shook her head and looked away swiftly, biting her lip.

"Um, I thought this was my room, but I'm clearly mistaken," she lied and turned around. He stood up and walked to the door.

"Claire?" he said and combed his hand through his wet hair. She turned around and looked at him, waiting for him to say something.

"You're pretty good with that bow and arrow," he complemented her, with nothing else to say. She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

"Oh, um, thanks. You're not too bad with that bow gun yourself," she said awkwardly. His lips formed a weak smile as he scratched the back of his neck. He opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by Dale, who came out of Andrea's room. He looked at Daryl and then at Claire, sensing that something was up between the two. "You two alright?" he asked. Claire backed away and nodded.

"Yeah, I was just on my way to bed. Just wanted to say goodnight to Daryl," she lied. Dale nodded and went to his room. Daryl looked at Claire weirdly.

"You okay? You're acting weird," he told her, sensing something. She nodded and put her hands behind her back.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just tired, I guess," she replied, looking at the ground. He raised his brow and sighed.

"Okay, well, I'm pretty pooped too, so see you in the morning," he said and went back into his room. Claire turned around and went to hers. Daryl watched her and made sure she went to her room, before closing the door and switching off the light. He got on the couch and drifted away. When Claire got to her room, she shut the door and dived on the couch.

"No Claire. He's not your type!" she said to herself and giggled to herself. Slowly but surely, she fell asleep too.

Next morning.

Claire got up and looked around the room. She remembered where she was, and got up. She put her black jeans and black "Queen" tank top. She slipped her Doc Martins on, put her hair in a French plait and made her way to the kitchen for breakfast.

"Morning!" she announced and grabbed a plate. She put some bacon and eggs on it and sat down next to Glenn, who looked terrible. "Never thought you'd do it!" she joked. He groaned and looked at her. She laughed and patted his back. "Just stick to Pepsi, kay?" she joked some more. Carl and Lori laughed as Glenn instructed Claire to never give him alcohol ever again. Andrea and Dale started asking Dr. Jenner some more questions and when everybody was done eating, he took them up to the lab again. He explained how the virus works and what not. Then he went on and told them that when the generator stopped working, the building will self-destruct. Claire's head shot up at the sound of that. "What?" she asked shocked at what she was hearing. He explained some more, and then Rick, Shane, Glenn and T-Dog went down to the generators. Everybody else went to their rooms and waited for further notice. Unexpectedly, it got really stuffy and everybody came out of their rooms to see what was going on. Dr. Jenner was walking down the corridor, telling them what was happening.

"Where's the damn light?" Claire asked. Lori agreed and asked Dr. Jenner, too. Daryl stuck his head out and Dr. Jenner grabbed the Whiskey bottle from his hand.

"Hey!" Daryl said and walked behind him.

"The building's shutting itself down," Edmund said and carried on walking. Daryl caught up with him quickly.

"Hey! What does that mean?" he asked him. The doctor ignored him.

"Hey! He's talking to you!" Claire yelled. Dr. Jenner turned around and took a sip of the Whiskey. He handed it back to Daryl and started explaining again. When he was done, everyone started panicking.

"Everybody, get your things!" Rick commanded. Everybody turned around but the doors locked.

"30 minutes until decontamination!" the computer announced.

"Did he just lock us in?!" Claire panicked. Everybody started screaming. Daryl ran towards Dr. Jenner and nearly punched him, but was stopped by Shane and T-Dog. "The fucking bastard!" he yelled as Shane pulled him back. Carol and Lori held on to Sophia and Carl, while Rick and Shane commanded Edmund to open the doors. The crazy scientist started shouting at them and told them why the building is going to self-destruct. People started crying and accepting their fates. Claire paced around the platform, trying to remain calm. Eventually, she stood still for a moment and then sat down, trying to calm herself down. Meanwhile Daryl, T-Dog, Glenn and Shane tried bashing the door with axes. They finally gave up and went back to the group.

"Those doors are built to withstand rocket launcher," Dr. Edmund Jenner told them.

"Well your head ain't!" Daryl yelled and attempted to hit him with an axe. The guys held him back again and he calmed down. He walked back to the doors and sat down. Claire followed him and sat down too. "Can you believe this piece of shit?!" he asked and looked at her. She took a deep breath and wiped her face.

"Nobody deserves to die this way," she said and rested her head on her knees. She started crying and Daryl didn't know what to do. He cleared his throat and she slowly lifted her head to look at him.

"Remember that gang back in Atlanta?" he asked, trying to change the subject. She nodded and wiped her face.

"Those sons of bitches threatened to feed Glenn to their dogs. Turned out to be a bunch of big ass rats," she croaked. Daryl laughed a bit, which caused her to smile. He got up and held out his hand to her.

"C'mon, we're getting out of here," he told her. She took his hand and got up. They walked back to the others. When they got closer, they saw Shane pointing his gun at Edmund's head and demanding that he opened the doors. Rick pulled him back and told him to stop. Then he managed to convince Jenner to open up. The doors opened up and everyone ran to the exit, except for Jacque and Andrea. Claire ignored them and sprinted to the exit. When they got there, the doors were locked. Daryl and Shane started hitting the windows with the axes, but it was no use. They started shooting, but still; nothing. Then Carol handed Rick a grenade and everybody got down while he placed it near the window. It blew up and everybody watched as the glass fell out of its frame. The group hopped out and sprinted to the cars. Claire hopped into the passenger's seat of Daryl's pickup truck. He got in on the driver's side, while the others got into the RV and the other car. Daryl started the car, but got distracted by two people that came out of the building.

"Well I'll be damned," he said to himself as everybody watched Andrea and Dale run towards them.

"Get down!" Shane yelled and got down. Everybody followed and Rick told Dale and Andrea to get down, too. Everybody watched as the building they were just in five minutes ago, exploded. Andrea and Dale got into the RV and they drove away while the building burned to the ground. They drove out of the city and onto the highway.

"Why are you in my truck?" Daryl asked Claire. She turned to face him.

"It was the closest," she shrugged. Daryl smirked and looked at her.

"You okay?" he asked. She laughed a bit.

"Other than shtting my pants? Yeah, I'm terrific," she said sarcastically. He smiled and handed her a bottle of water.

"Look what I found in my room back there," he said. Her face lit up.

"May I?" she asked. He nodded and she took a sip. The cool liquid burnt her dry throat as she swallowed. She closed the bottle and gave it back. Daryl took it and suddenly stopped the car. Claire looked at the road and noticed a huge over-turned truck lying in the road.

"Oh for Christ sakes!" Daryl said irritably as he climbed out. Claire remained seated and let him deal with it. She watched him walk over to the RV and talk to Dale. She put her feet up on the seat and waited for him to return. Finally, she got bored and got out to see what the holdup was. Turned out to be Dale's RV. Claire looked at T-Dog and Glenn, who were raiding the cars in the road. She joined in and helped.

"I don't know how I feel about this," Lori expressed. Claire ignored her and continued raiding. Sooner or later, Andrea, Carol and Lori joined in, too. Claire saw a grey hoodie lying on the seat in one of the cars. She lifted it up to see of it would fit and was really big but she took it anyway. She looted some of the other bags that were in the car and found some makeup. Claire laughed to herself when she saw it, thinking back to when she used to wear eye shadow and lipstick and the whole lot.

"Claire!" she heard someone whisper. She turned around and saw Rick. She smiled and asked him what was wrong.

"Get in the car and stay down," he instructed. There was no time to argue and she climbed in and closed the doors, while Rick told the others to hide. Then, Claire heard moaning and looked out the window. There were a shit load of walkers passing. She quickly ducked again and kept quiet. As soon as they completely passed, Claire slowly got out of the car and went to Lori and Carol. Carol was in tears as she looked into the woods.

"Where's Rick?" Claire asked and looked around.

"He's in there, looking for Sophia. She ran into the forest," Lori clarified. Claire put her arm around Carol and hugged her.

"Don't worry; she'll be back before you know it," she reassured her. Then Rick emerged from the bushes.

"She up here?" he asked, catching his breath. Glenn shook his head, which made Carol sob even more. Daryl stepped forward and told Rick to show him where he left her and then the guys went into the forest. A few minutes later, Glenn and Shane came out of the woods. Carol ran up to them.

"You didn't find her?" she questioned. Glenn looked at her.

"Daryl and Rick are handling it," he said and patted her arm. Lori and Andrea hugged her as she silently sobbed. Dale called Claire inside the RV. She went in and sat down opposite him at the table.

"Something wrong?" she asked and folded her arms. He shook his head.

"Do you like Daryl?" he asked. She was a bit taken aback by his question.

"I understand him. That's all," she simply replied. Dale put his hand on the table.

"He's a tough one to understand. I know he's a good guy and he's going through a rough time. He needs someone like you right now," he said. Claire looked him in the eye and nodded. Dale gave her a warm smile and the two went back to the rest of the group. They waited and waited and soon, the sun started setting. Claire climbed on top of the RV and sat on the fold out chair. She cleaned the blade of her machete and waited for Rick and Daryl to return. She heard the trees move and saw the two emerge from the forest. She climbed down and ran to them, as everybody else did.

"You didn't find her?" Carol breathed. Rick came closer and explained to her that Sophia's trail stopped and told her that they'd pick it up in the morning.

"You can't leave her out there on her own. To spend the night alone in the woods?" Carol cried. Daryl stepped up.

"Hunting in the dark in no good. We'll just be trippin' over ourselves," he told her calmly.

"But she's twelve! She can't be there on her own!" She sobbed. Lori reached in and rubbed her back.

"I know this is hard, but I'm asking you not to panic. We know she was out there," Rick reassured her.

"We tracked her for miles!" Daryl said, trying to make her feel better. Rick combed his hand through his hair. "We need to make this an organized effort. Daryl knows the woods better than anybody. I've asked him to oversee this," Rick announced. Everybody nodded and looked at Daryl's pants. It had blood on it.

"Is that blood?" Claire asked. Daryl looked down at the stain then at Rick.

"We took down a walker," Rick told the group. Carol took a deep breath.

"Walker?" she whispered under her breath. Rick leaned closer and explained to her that there was no sign of Sophia because they cut it open to see. Carol and Lori sat down on the barrier and looked up at Rick.

"How could you just leave her out there to begin with?" she sobbed. Rick told her what happened and why he left her.

"Sounds like he didn't have a choice, Carol," Claire said while kneeling beside her. Carol ignored her and blamed Rick anyway. Eventually, Rick couldn't handle the blame and just walked away. Night time came, and Claire took refuge in a nearby car while everybody else found their own places to sleep. She closed her eyes and fell asleep.


	6. Chapter 6

**Two days later **

They never found Sophia. Carl got shot. The others went to some farm, where Carl's wounds were being treated. Claire, Dale, Daryl, Andrea and Carol decided to stay behind in the RV for one more night. Claire and Andrea sat at the table, cleaning the guns, Carol lay on the bed, crying, Daryl was on the ground, trying to sleep while Dale sat on top of the RV, looking out for any danger. Carol wept and wept and eventually, Daryl woke up, unable to sleep. He looked at Carol, then up at Claire and Andrea. Claire smiled at him and he got up, grabbing his bow gun.

"Gonna need my clip, now," he said to Claire. She handed it over and he loaded his handgun. "Imma walk the road, look for the girl." He looked at Carol and nodded, then climbed out of the RV. Claire grabbed her shotgun and climbed out too.

"Going with you," she said to Daryl. He nodded and told Dale that they would be going on a quick walk.

"You think we'll find her?" she asked. He shined the light on her face and sighed.

"It ain't the mountains in Tibet, its Georgia. She could be holed up in a farmhouse somewhere. Kids get lost, it happens all the time," he replied.

"She's only twelve."

"Hell, I was younger than her and I got lost. Nine days in the woods, eating berries and wiping my ass with poison oak."

"They found you?"

"My old man was somewhere with a waitress and Merle was doing another sentence in Juvi. He didn't even know I was gone. I made my way back, though. Went straight into the kitchen and made myself a sandwich. I was fine, except my ass hurt. It was awful," he told Claire. She burst out laughing.

"Sorry. That is a terrible story," she joked and laughed. Daryl laughed too.

"Well at least she's got people looking for her. I call that an advantage," he said. Then, they saw something that could make anybody sick; a half eaten walker, hanging from a rope. Claire walked over to the tree. There was a note stuck to the trunk.

"Got bit. Fever hit. World went to shit. Might as well quit" she read aloud. Then she looked up at its legs and notice that they had no flesh on them. Just the bone. Claire gagged at the sight.

"You okay?" Daryl asked, a bit concerned.

"Tryin' not to puke."

"Go ahead if ya gotta."

"No, let's just change the subject," she asked nicely. He ignored her and blabbered on about the walker.

"Look at him hanging there like a big piñata. Looks like the geeks came along," he blabbered and shined his flashlight at the legs. Claire couldn't resist, and puked. Daryl looked at her.

"What happened to changing the damn subject?" she asked sarcastically. He chuckled.

"Payback for laughing at my itchy ass," he joked. She laughed a bit. They decided to head back. When Carol saw them arrive without Sophia then went back inside the RV. Daryl and Claire offered to take watch for the rest of the night.

**The next day**

When they arrived at the farm, they got introduced to Hershel, his daughters Maggie and Beth, and Patricia. They were told about Otis, and how he died. After the funeral, the group asked Maggie for a map of the forest. They spread the map out on the hood of one of the cars.

"How long has she been gone?" Hershel asked.

"This would be day three," Claire replied. They thought of a plan, but only Daryl could go out due to Shane's ankle injury and Rick's low blood pressure. Claire insisted that she tag along, but was shot down by Daryl, who claimed that he wanted to go alone. She lost the argument and went to help Hershel in the stables. A few hours later, she went back to the RV.

"Daryl back yet?" she asked Rick, who was talking to Shane outside the RV. He shook his head.

"You should eat something. Go inside, Lori will give you food," Rick instructed. She nodded and went to the farmhouse. She heard laughing and followed the sound. It led her to the kitchen, where Maggie and Lori were doing the dishes. Lori noticed her standing in the doorway and took a plate of food out of the fridge. She handed it to Claire.

"Thanks," she said to Lori. Lori nodded and continued to wash up. When Claire was done eating, she washed up and went outside to clean her arrows. Dale and Glenn were in the RV and Andrea sat on top of it, and keeping guard.

"Walker! Walker!" Andrea yelled. Everybody looked into the distance and saw a figure emerge from the forest.

"Just the one?" Rick asked. Andrea looked through her binoculars and nodded.

"I bet I could nail if from here," she said and grabbed the rifle.

"Andrea, no. Put the gun down!" Rick instructed. She ignored him and looked through the scope anyway. Shane and Rick had a small argument before heading out to kill it. Claire grabbed her machete and followed them. When they got closer, Rick aimed his gun at it.

"That's the third time you've pointed that thing at my head!" it said. It turned out to be Daryl.

"Holy shit!" Claire mumbled. Rick lowered his gun.

"You gonna pull the trigger, or what?" Daryl sarcastically asked. Suddenly, there was a gunshot and Daryl fell to the ground.

"NO!" Claire screamed and ran to him. She knelt beside him and held his head.

"Daryl!" she sobbed. He lifted his hand and felt the wound. The bullet had only grazed his forehead. She swatted his hand away.

"I was kidding," he managed to say before passing out. Claire put his arm over her shoulder and tried to pull him up. She wasn't strong enough and fell down. Rick and Shane ran over and helped her lift him up. Tears were running down her cheeks. They carried him to the house and put him on a bed. Claire climbed onto the bed and held his hand.

"Daryl?" her voice croaked. No reply. She stroked his head and sobbed silently. After a while, she got up.

"I'll stay with him. I'll call you when he wakes," she said to Shane and Rick. They nodded and left the room. Claire sat on the couch that was in the room and slowly drifted off again.

**Hours later**

Daryl's eyes slowly flickered open. He looked around the room. It had white walls and white sheets. He looked the couch that was next to the bed and saw someone lying on it. It was Claire. There was a knock on the door.

"Come in!" Daryl yelled. The door opened and Rick and the farmer, Hershel, walked in. Rick looked at the sleeping Claire.

"Why is she here?" Daryl whispered.

"She never left," Rick quietly replied. Hershel tended to Daryl's wounds.

"Ow!" Daryl exclaimed as Hershel put some alcohol onto the wound. Claire groaned and opened her eyes. When she saw Daryl lying on the bed, giving her a strange look, she remembered what happened. She quickly got up.

"Jesus, you scared the shit outta me!" she exclaimed and knelt down next to the bed. Daryl raised an eyebrow. "You ever pull something like that again, you'll be fucking sorry," she joked. Rick laughed a bit and Hershel smiled.

"What are you doing in here?" Daryl asked and sat up.

"I have nothing better to do," she joked and crossed her arms on the side of the bed. She put her head down. Rick spread the map down on the bed and knelt down next to Claire.

"We found Sophia's doll in your pocket. Where'd you find it?" he asked Daryl. Daryl pointed it out on the map. Hershel accused Daryl of taking his horse, Nelly, and he admitted to taking it.

"You need to rest," Rick said to Daryl after a while before Hershel, Claire and Rick left the room.


	7. Chapter 7

**Next day**

Daryl dragged himself out of bed that morning. He got dressed and went to the stables. Claire saw him from the RV and ran after him.

"You can't!" Claire tried to stop him. "Hershel said you need to heal."

"What do you want?" Daryl asked Claire. She ignored the question.

"We don't know if we'll find her," Claire said sadly.

"What?" Daryl said irritably.

"We can't lose you, too," Claire mumbled. Daryl gave her an irritated look, and then threw the horse's saddle on the floor in anger. He groaned and clutched his side in pain. Claire reached out to help.

"Just leave me be!" Daryl shouted. Claire ignored him and helped him anyway. When he was okay, he stood up and looked at her.

"Why are you here?! Can't you leave me alo-" He said but got cut off due to Claire kissing him. He accepted the kiss and pulled her closer to his body. Daryl wrapped his arms around her waist as their tongues fought for dominance. Claire gave in and put her hands around his neck. Daryl pushed her against the wall as she pulled him even closer. They broke apart for air and Daryl put his forehead against hers. She smiled and bit her lip.

"You're a real piece of work, lady," he whispered and leaned in for another kiss. She accepted it and immediately let his tongue dominate. They broke apart again.

"Let's go to my tent" he whispered. She grinned and they quickly ran to his tent. They sat down and kissed. Sparks were flying everywhere. They broke apart and he rested his forehead on hers.

"You need to rest," she said. He ignored her and kissed her again, this time, he leaned back and she climbed on top of him. He peeled off her tank top, while she unbuckled his belt and slowly took his pants off. He pushed her beside his body and climbed on top of her. She was about to take his grey tank top off, but he suddenly flinched and pulled away.

"What's the matter?" she asked. He looked sad.

"I don't want you to see me like this," he said. Claire smiled.

"Daryl, you can trust me."

He nodded and took if off himself, exposing scars and tattoos nobody else knew about. Claire gasped when she saw the big scar on his chest. She traced her finger over it.

"You're so sexy," she finally said, trying to lighten the mood. Daryl smiled and leaned in for another kiss.

"You're so beautiful," he said and the two proceeded to have the best day of their lives.

A few hours later, Claire finally woke up. She lay on her side with Daryl's arm around her waist. His face was buried in her hair.

"Where the fuck is Rick?" she heard someone say from outside Daryl's tent.

"Dunno. He was supposed to be back hours ago!" someone else said. Claire sat up, sensing that something was wrong. Daryl groaned.

"Sweetie, get up! Somethin's wrong!" she whispered. Daryl opened his eyes and the first thing he saw, were two, big, blue eyes looking at him. He smiled.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"It's Rick. He's missing!" she replied. Daryl could sense her worry and got up. She got up too. They put their shoes on and ran to the farmhouse, where everybody else was standing.

"Where's everyone?" Andrea asked. Glenn stood up.

"Rick's not with you?" he asked. She shook her head.

"What the hell?" Daryl asked as he reached them. Claire was right behind him. "Isn't anybody taking this seriously? We got us a damn trail!" he yelled. He turned around and saw Shane walking towards them. "Ah, here we go!" he said and walked to Shane. Then he noticed all the guns that he was carrying. "What's all this?" he asked as Shane handed Claire a shotgun. Shane handed him one too, along with Glenn, T-Dog and Andrea.

"If you do this, my dad will send ya'll packing tonight!" Maggie warned him. He ignored her and handed Carl a revolver, but Lori stopped him. She told him to stop trying to be the leader.

"Oh shit!" T-Dog said and everybody looked to where he was. Rick and Hershel had brought walkers into the farm. Everybody started sprinting towards them. Shane started yelling at Rick.

"Stay back, Claire," Daryl said to Claire. She ignored him. Then Shane started shooting one of the walkers.

"Enough risking our lives for a little girl!" Shane yelled and tried to open up the barn.

"Shane, no!" Claire yelled. Daryl directed her to stay back again when the barn doors started opening. Quite a lot of walkers came out of it. They had no choice but to start shooting. The armed people shot the walkers down one by one, as Lori cradled Carl and Maggie cradled Hershel. Just as they thought they had killed all of the walkers, a small one appeared. She was wearing a blue rainbow t-shit and white running shoes. Everybody gasped. It was Sophia. Claire put her hand over her mouth and Daryl held her close. She sobbed silently in his chest. Carol ran to her but was stopped by Shane. He held her back as she cried. Carl and Lori were crying. Andrea was crying. Glenn was crying. As Sophia got closer, Rick stepped forward and shot her. It was tough day, but everybody managed to pull through. Carol sat inside the RV and watched Andrea put a blanket over Sophia's dead body. Daryl and Claire climbed into the RV and sat on the counter. Carol looked at them and wiped her face. They sat there for a while until Lori entered.

"They're ready," she said. Carol shook her head. "C'mon."

"Why?" Carol croaked. Claire hopped off the counter.

"Because she's your little girl," Claire said. Carol looked up at her.

"That's not my little girl. It's some other thing. My Sophia was alone in the woods. All this time I thought; she didn't cry herself to sleep. She didn't go hungry. She didn't try to find her way back. She died a long time ago," Carol told them. Lori nodded and left. Daryl and Claire looked at Carol. She didn't say anything else.

"C'mon, babe," Daryl said to Claire and they made their way to the others to pay their respects. During the ceremony, everybody kept on looking at them because they were holding hands. When the ceremony was done, the two went back to the RV. Carol wasn't there anymore.

"So, what now?" Claire asked. Daryl moved closer and wrapped his arms around her waist. He kissed her forehead.

"You know how to ride a motorcycle?" he asked. She nodded. He backed away. "Really, now?" he asked. Claire laughed.

"I had one before the world went to shit," she elucidated. He smiled.

"So she's beautiful and a badass. What are the odds?" he joked. She blushed and tucked a strand of black hair behind her ear. "You know any stunts?" he asked, not expecting an answer. She nodded.

"I can pop a wheel," she bragged. Daryl looked surprised.

"You gotta show me someday," he said. She nodded. Just as they were about to kiss, Lori walked in.

"We need Hershel," she said to Daryl. He looked at here.

"So what?" he asked irritably.

"So I need you to run into town real quick and bring him back," she explained. Daryl ignored her and looked at Claire. "Daryl!" Lori yelled to get his attention. He gave her an irritated look.

"You want him, then get him yourself. I got better things to do," he told Lori, who was a bit taken aback.

"What's the matter with you? Why would you be so selfish?" Lori asked him. Daryl stepped forward.

"Selfish? Listen to me, Olive Oyl, I was out there looking for that girl every single day. I took a bullet and an arrow in the process, don't you tell me shit about getting my hands dirty!" Daryl yelled. Lori was shocked. "You want them? Have a nice ride. I'm done looking for people!" Lori stormed out of the RV. Daryl turned back to Claire. "Sorry about that," he said. Claire shook her head.

"Honey, you don't have to be sorry about shit. You earned your place; you did the most out all of us put together. You're just as great as Rick or Shane. Stop doubting yourself, okay?" Claire lectured. Daryl nodded and pulled her into a hug.

"Thanks, sweetheart."

Daryl asked Claire to have dinner with him instead of the others. She agreed and the two sat outside Daryl's tent. When they finished their squirrel they started talking about their childhood.

"In high school I went through an 'Emo' phase. Started cutting and everything," she said. Daryl looked at her strangely and asked her why she would 'cut'. "I, um-" she said and remembered what happened. "I got touched by the guy my mom was with. He threatened to rape me if I told my mom about his other girlfriend," she said sadly. ''I guess I needed something to get my mind off him. Cutting seemed just about right back then."

Daryl moved closer to her and held her chin. "If anybody touches you again, I'll make real sure to add their ears to my collection. I promise," he assured her. She smiled and hugged him. "My childhood wasn't too great neither. Merle was never around and my old man used to beat the crap outta me. Then he ran off with this skank and left me with my mom, who wasn't any different to begin with. She was an alcoholic and a druggie. Hell, she didn't care where I was. Or even what I was doing with my life. When I was twelve, I was out playin' with the neighborhood kids. Next thing I know, everybody's runnin' up the road and there're sirens everywhere. I stand there, thinkin' 'what the hell is goin' on?", so follow them around the corner and see this house burning and everybody starts givin' me these weird looks. Then I notice the house is mine and get worried. Some officer comes up to me and tells me my mom was sleepin' and didn't make it. I had to live with my dad and that skank until I was 18. Then I started livin' with Merle in a rundown downtown apartment. We lived together for a while, living off his drug dealing and he had this girlfriend. She was ugly as fuck, but he kept her around anyway. Then I moved out. Worked as a snitch for some rick guy. Then the world went down the damn drain then we met Glenn and the group. Then Merle got left in town. Sophia went missing and I got you. Everything turned out fine," he told his story. Claire was silent. She had nothing to say. Daryl held her closer and kissed her forehead.

"I'm sorry you had to go through that," Claire whispered. He nodded.

"Well, I'm tired as fuck. You comin'?" He finely said and got up. He put out the fire and went to his tent.

"I'm gonna get my pajamas," she said and went to her tent. She took off her jeans and put her pajama shorts on. When she went back to Daryl's tent, he was wearing his boxers and a black t-shirt. He was lying under his blanket and Claire climbed underneath it too. She put her head on his chest and arm around his body. They fell asleep quickly that night.


	8. Chapter 8

**One week later**

Remember that kid Rick, Glenn and Hershel saved? Well Rick and Shane were meant to send him on his own, but something went wrong and they were forced to return. It was dusk and Claire and Daryl were out in the stables, brushing the horses. Rick walked in and pulled Daryl aside, asking him to do something. Daryl nodded and Rick walked out the stables.

"I gotta help Rick deal with that kid real quick," he told her.

"I'm gonna go see if Lori or Beth need anything," she said. Daryl nodded and left. Claire went to the house and found Andrea and Lori in the kitchen.

"Hey," she said to them. None of them replied. Claire could feel the awkwardness around her. It was like they just had a big argument. "So, I'm sensing some negativity in here, so I'm just gonna go," she said and backed out. "What about here? She doesn't do anything," Andrea said to Lori. Claire stopped and turned around. "Excuse me?" Claire asked.

"Lori cooks and washes. I help protect this camp and what do you do besides sleeping around with Dixon?" Andrea asked. Claire shook her head in disbelief.

"Protecting? That's funny because I don't believe Daryl was a threat to anybody when you shot him. Rick and Shane told you not to shoot, but your head was so far up your ass that you decided not to listen. I help protect this place just as much as you do. Rick is leader for a reason and the more you question his decisions the more you piss all of us off. I wanna see you lead a group of broken survivors. I wanna see how quickly you make the tough decisions," Andrea was silent. "And Daryl and I are none of your goddamn business," Claire said and walked out the house. She went to her tent and lied down for a bit. Meanwhile in the barn, Daryl was beating Randall to a pulp. He stopped for a while to hear what the kid had to say.

"I told you!" Randall whined.

"You told me shit!" Daryl yelled and kicked him.

"I barely knew those guys!" the Randall yelled. Daryl showed no mercy.

"How many in your group?" Daryl asked him. The guy spat out blood and didn't answer. Daryl slowly took out his knife and held it to Randall's leg.

"Aw, no, man!" the kid pleaded. Daryl was at boiling point.

"How many?!" he shouted. "Where?"

The boy ignored the question and Daryl ripped the bandage off his wound. He screamed in pain.

"I don't know! We're never at one place for more than a night!" the boy yelled. Daryl held his knife to Randall's wound. "They left me behind!" Randall yelled.

"You ever pick off a scab?" Daryl asked and looked down at Randall's wound.

"I'm tryna cooperate!" Randall yelled. Daryl ignored him.

"You start off real slow, but sooner or later; you just gotta rip it off."

"Okay! They have weapons. Heavy stuff. Automatics. I didn't do anything!" Randall cried. Daryl held the knife even closer to his wounds.

"You tryna take this farm?" he asked Randall. "You went along for the ride and your telli' me your innocent?!"

"Yes!" Randall cried. Daryl stood up. "They took me in. Not just guys; a whole group of them. Men and women. Kids too, just like you people! Thought I'd have a better chance with them, you know? But, we'd go out and scavenge. Just the men. One night, we found this little camp; man and his two daughters. Teenagers, you know? Really young, real cute," Randall explained. When he heard the last part, Daryl turned around and looked at him, thinking about the story Claire told him about being touched. Randall could see the distress in Daryl's face and continued with his story, "These guys, they made the father watch. And they didn't even kill him afterwards. They just left him there. I didn't touch those girls-" He tried to say before Daryl kicked him in the stomach.

"You gotta believe me!" Randall pleaded, "I'm not like that!"

Daryl ignored him and continued to beat him. Meanwhile, outside, Claire climbed out of her tent and joined everybody else. They waited for Daryl to come out of the barn and fill them in. He finally left the barn and walked towards the group. As he got closer, Claire noticed his bloody knuckles.

"Jesus! What happened?" Claire asked and hugged him. She cleaned up the blood while he told everybody what he squeezed out of Randall.

"He's got a gang; thirty men. Heavy artillery. They ain't looking to make friends. They roll through here, our boys are dead. Our woman are gonna wish they were," Daryl explained and looked at Claire. She knew what he meant. Everybody did.

"No one goes near this guy!" Rick commanded. Lori looked at him.

"What are you gonna do?" she asked worriedly, knowing what Rick's plan was.

"We have no choice; he's a threat," Rick said, "We have to eliminate the threat.

"You're just gonna kill him?" Dale asked. Rick and Shane looked at him and nodded.

"We'll do it today," Shane said. Everybody nodded and went their separate ways. Claire cleaned Daryl's hand up and the two went back to Daryl's own little camp. They were cleaning their arrows when they saw Dale walking towards them.

"The whole point of us coming up here is to get away from you people," Daryl told Dale.

"I'm worried about you," Dale said to the couple. Daryl shook his head.

"We don't need our heads shrunk," Daryl coldly replied, "This group's broken and we're better off alone," he said and looked at Claire.

"You act like you don't care," Dale said. Daryl nodded and threw his leather vest on.

"That's coz I don't."

"So live or die, you two don't care what happens to Randall?" Dale asked. Claire stood up.

"Well…," she said and put her leather jacket on. Daryl grabbed his crossbow and Claire grabbed her bow.

"Then help me save him," Dale asked. Claire put her black hair into a high pony tail.

"Why should we help that son of a bitch?" Claire asked. Dale stepped closer.

"Your opinions matter," Dale said. Daryl raised an eyebrow.

"These people don't look at us for nothing'!" he said. Claire put swung her bow over her shoulder.

"I do. I am right now. Carol does," Dale said. Daryl smirked. "Rick obviously does!"

Daryl stepped closer to Dale.

"Rick just looks at Shane!" he said irritably and turned around. He looked at Claire, who looked a bit irritated as well.

"You cared about Sophia. Care is what's important in this group," Dale continued. Daryl and Claire turned around and looked at him. "Torturing people? That isn't you, Daryl. And walking away isn't you, young lady," he said and looked at Claire. She sighed. Dale continued. "You're decent people! So is Rick. Shane is different."

"Why is that? Because he killed Otis?" Claire asked and raised an eyebrow.

"Who told you that?" Dale asked.

"We ain't stupid," Daryl answered for her. "Now if you'll excuse us, we're goin' huntin'," he said and headed for the forest. Claire followed him. When they got to the woods, Daryl stopped.

"Congrats, Claire. Today you get to learn how to hunt!" he said before shooting a squirrel.

**Later that day **

When Claire and Daryl returned, they were called down to the house for a discussion. Daryl put one of his arms around Claire's waist as they waited for the meeting to start.

"So how do we do this? Take a vote?" Glenn asked.

"Let's just see where everybody stands. Then we can talk about options," Rick suggested.

"The way I see it, there's only one way to move forward," Shane added.

"Killing him?" Dale asked angrily, "Why even bother to vote?"

"Well if people believe we should spare him, I wanna know," Rick said. Dale sighed.

"Well I can tell you it's a small group," Dale said sadly and looked at Glenn, "Maybe even just me and Glenn." Glenn looked up at Dale.

"I think you're pretty much right about everything all the time, but this-" Glenn said but got interrupted by Dale.

"They've got you scared!" Dale yelled.

"He's not one of us!" Glenn yelled back. "And, we've lost too many people already."

Dale sighed and looked at Maggie.

"How about you? Do you agree with this?" he asked. Maggie stood up.

"Couldn't we continue keeping him as a prisoner?" She asked the group. Daryl sighed.

"I'll just be another mouth to feed," he said and crossed his arms.

"It may be a mean winter," Hershel objected.

"We can ration better," Lori suggested.

"Well he could be an asset! Give him a chance to prove himself!" Dale begged.

"We're not letting him walk around," Rick shot the idea down.

"Put an escort on him," Maggie suggested. Shane shot the suggestion down.

"Shane's right. I wouldn't feel safe with him walking around," Lori said.

"We can't sentence him to hard labor," Andrea said.

"Say we let him join us. Maybe he's helpful. Maybe he's 'nice'," Shane said. "Maybe we let our guard down and he brings back his thirty men."

"So the answer is to kill him? To prevent a crime that he hasn't even attempted?!" Dale defended. "If we do this, there won't be any hope left!"

"Can't you drive him out? Leave him like you planed?" Hershel asked. Lori shook her head.

"Rick barely came back the last time. There're walkers, you could get lost," She went on.

"Ambushed," Daryl added.

"We shouldn't put our own people at risk," Glenn believed.

"If you go through with it, how would you do it?" Patricia asked. "Would he suffer?"

"We were gonna hang him," Shane said and looked at Rick.

"Shooting may be more humane," Rick supposed.

"Hold on! You're talking about this like it's already decided!" Dale yelled.

"We've been talking the whole day. Going around in circles, wanna go around in circles again?" Daryl asked Dale, a bit annoyed.

"This is a young man's life! And it is worth more than a five minute conversation!" Dale yelled again. "Is this what it's come to? Killing someone because we can't decide what else to do with them?! You saved him! He's been tortured, he's gonna be executed! How are we any better than those people we're so scared of?" Everybody remained silent.

"We all know what has to be done," Shane told Dale. Claire stepped forward.

"What's the other solution?" Andrea asked. "We haven't come up with a single solution yet."

"So let's work on it!" Dale shouted.

"Stop it!" Carol yelled. "I'm sick of all this arguing. I didn't ask for this. You can't ask us to decide on something like this. Please just make a decision and leave me out of it."

"Not speaking out or killing him yourself; there's no difference," Dale coldly said to Carol.

"Now wait a minute, if she doesn't' wanna be a part of this, who the hell are you to tell her otherwise?" Claire said to Dale.

"Enough!" Rick yelled. Maggie and Patricia sat down.

"You once said 'we don't kill the living'," Dale said to Rick.

"That was before the living tried to kill us," Rick replied. Dale sighed angrily.

"The world that we knew is dead! This new world is ugly. It's harsh. It's survival of the fittest. And that's a world I don't wanna live in," Dale said to everybody. "Please. Let's just do what's right. Is anybody gonna stand with me?"

Claire stepped forward. "Dale's right. We outta be ashamed of ourselves! Treating that guy like an animal? Throwing his life around like a basketball?! I'm with Dale on this one. We gotta think about the future. Is this who we wanna be? Merciless, emotionless monsters? Where's our humanity? We're just as bad as those walkers for Christ's sake!" Claire yelled. Everybody looked at her. There was a moment of silence.

"They're right," Andrea said. Dale and Claire looked at her. "We should find another way."

"Anybody else?" Rick asked. Nobody said anything.

"Nice to know that I'm living with killers. While you guys hack his head off with a saw, I'll be praying for the next victim," Claire said and turned to Daryl with tearing eyes. "You're right. This group is broken," she said then stormed out. She ran to her post and sobbed to herself. A few minutes later, she heard footsteps. She didn't look back.

"Claire?" she heard someone ask. It was Daryl. She ignored him and hoped for him to go away. Instead, he stood next to her

"What?" she asked without turning around. He sat down.

"I'm sorry."

"Fuck off."

"No," he said and wrapped his arms around her waist.

"You want me to hold your hand while Shane sticks a bullet in the guy's head?"

"You need to eat."

"And you need to get lost," she said. She thought that he'd stay, but he turned around and left. Claire silently sobbed to herself and continued keeping guard.


	9. Chapter 9

**Later**

The others sat around the fire and talked. A few minutes later, she saw Rick and Carl come.

"We're keepin' him in custardy, for now," Rick said. Claire and Dale let out a sigh of relief. Claire decided to go down to Daryl's camp to see if he needed anything.

He was sitting by himself around the fire. Claire sat down next to him.

"I'm sorry," she said. He nodded and kissed her forehead.

"Me too," he said. She smiled and he handed her some squirrel. She accepted and the two sat around the fire, eating dinner for a while before they hear a scream. They immediately grabbed their handguns and ran to towards the scream. It was a walker attacking Dale. Claire immediately tackled the walker down. She stabbed its head with her machete and got up. She looked at Daryl then down at Dale. His belly was ripped open.

"Oh my God!" She gasped.

"Help!" Daryl yelled to the others. Rick, Andrea, Shane and Glenn ran as fast as they could.

"We're here, buddy," Daryl said to Dale. Tears were running down Claire's cheeks as she tried to stop the bleeding with her hands. It was no use, thought. The rip was too big. The others came and Andrea immediately knelt down beside him and tried to calm him down a bit. Rick called Hershel.

"Can we move him?" he asked Hershel.

"No, he won't make the trip."

"Then we're just gonna have to do the operation here. Glenn, go get-"

"Rick, he won't make it," Hershel said. Lori and Andrea were on the ground sobbing, while Daryl held Claire. They all knew what had to be done. Rick took his gun out and pointed it a Dale's head. He couldn't bring himself to do it and broke down. Daryl took the gun out of his hand and did it on behalf of Rick.

"I'm sorry, brother," he said before pulling the trigger.

The next day was pretty rough; everyone was quiet. They had a funeral for Dale. Hershel decided to let everybody move into the house for winter. They put their sleeping bags in the living room. Andrea, Claire and Maggie handed out pillows and blankets, while Rick and Daryl stood on the porch and circled all the possible places to loot.

"Hershel's on the couch. Lori, Rick and Carl are upstairs. Me and Daryl will take this corner," Claire told them.

"Glenn will sleep in my room," Maggie said. Claire nodded.

"I'll sleep here," Andrea said and laid her sleeping bag on the floor. Daryl walked in and put down his things down next to Claire's.

"You okay in this corner?" Claire asked him. He nodded and went to the bathroom. "This gonna be one hell of a winter," she said to Andrea and Maggie. They nodded in agreement.

**LATER **

Daryl, Claire, Rick, Glenn and T-Dog stood outside and loaded the pickup truck.

"I'll go get him," Claire offered.

"No, you won't," Daryl said and looked at T-Dog.

"Daryl, I got this," she said and started walking before he could say anything else. Claire made her way to the shed and unlocked the door. She was shocked to see no sign of Randall at all. "Oh shit!" she whispered to herself and ran back to the guys.

"He's not there!" she said. The guys immediately ran to the shed to see for themselves.

"Cuffs are still clipped, he must've slipped," Rick observed. Claire put her hands on her hips.

"That's possible?" she asked and leaned against the frame of the door.

"The door was secured from outside," Hershel said.

"Rick!" Shane yelled and ran to the group with a bloody nose.

"Jesus!" Claire breathed.

"He's armed! He's got my gun!" Shane yelled. "Little bastard stole my gun!"

"Alright, Hershel, T-Dog, get everybody in the house. Glenn, Daryl, come with us!" Rick demanded. Claire stepped forward.

"I'm going with you. Just because I'm a girl, doesn't mean I can't get in on some action," she said. Daryl opened his mouth to object, but Rick nodded. She smiled and cocked her handgun. "You heard the man!" she yelled. The others ran inside the house.

"I saw him run that way!" Shane said and pointed.

"Daryl, can you track him?" Rick asked. Daryl shook his head.

"No, I see nothin'," he answered.

"There ain't no use tracking him. He went that way!"Shane said.

"You're telling me a beat up twenty year old took you down?" Claire asked.

"Enough!" Rick yelled and directed people in different directions.

"This is a waste of time," Daryl whispered and switched his flashlight on. He shined it around and found some blood on a tree. "Hello, trouble," he said and picked up a black piece of fabric. They heard someone coming and switched of the flashlight. Daryl pulled Claire behind a nearby tree. When the person came closer, they realized that it was a walker at it at was Randall. He lunged himself at Glenn and Daryl tried to shoot it with his bowgun but missed. Claire took her machete stabbed its brain.

"You okay?" she asked Glenn. He nodded. "That Randall?" she asked the guys. They said yes. They bent down to inspect the body.

"He got his neck broke," Daryl said as he studied the dead body. He flipped the corpse over and checked for any bites. Nothing. "He's got no bites," Daryl noticed.

"Yeah, none you can see," Glenn said. Daryl looked at him.

"I'm tellin' ya; he died from this," Daryl believed and pointed to its neck.

"How's that possible?" Claire asked. Then it hit them; someone did this, not something. They headed back to the house to share their findings. Everyone was sitting in the living room, waiting for answers.

"Rick and Shane aren't back?"Claire asked as they entered the house.

"No."

"We heard gunshots," Daryl mentioned.

"Maybe they found Randall?" Lori suggested. Daryl shook his head.

"We found Randall. He's a walker," Claire said.

"Did you find the walker that bit him?" Hershel asked. Glenn shook his head.

"Weird thing is, he wasn't bit; his neck got broke," Glenn explained.

"So he fought back?" Patricia asked. Glenn, Daryl and Claire looked at each other.

"Thing is, Shane and Randall's tracks were right on top of each other," Daryl put in plain words. "Shane ain't no tracker, so he didn't come up behind him. They were together."

Lori stood up. "Can you go back out there and find Rick and Shane, and find out what on earth is going on?" she asked Daryl. He nodded and looked at Claire. She nodded at him and went with him. They walked out onto the porch and heard groaning.

"What the hell?" Daryl asked himself and looked through his bow gun's scope. There were a shit load of walkers coming. Eventually, everybody game out to see what all the fuss was about. When they saw the walkers, they were petrified.

"Patricia, kill the lights," Hershel whispered.

"I'll get the guns," Andrea said and went inside.

"Maybe they're just passing like herd on the highway. Maybe we should just go inside and wait it out," Glenn proposed. Daryl shook his head.

"They're too much. They'd rip the house down," he said.

"Carl's gone!" Lori called out and came outside.

"What?" Claire asked worriedly.

"He was upstairs, I can't find him anymore," she cried.

"Maybe he's hiding?" Glenn suggested.

"He's supposed to be upstairs. I'm not leaving without my boy!"

"We're gonna look again and we're gonna find him!" Carol reassured her and the two went inside. Andrea handed everybody guns. Claire grabbed a shotgun and hopped over the rail.

"I'm gonna go look for Rick and Carl!" she said and slung her bow over her shoulder and ran towards the barn.

"Claire! No!" Daryl yelled. It was no use. She ignored him and continued to run.

"She'll be okay," Hershel said. Daryl nodded and they got into their cars to distract the walkers. Daryl climbed onto his motorcycle and drove away, drawing attention. He spotted Claire in the distance, running towards the barn, shooting any walkers that dared to stop her. He told Jimmy, who was driving the RV, to drive down to the burning barn and help Claire out. Daryl shot some nearby walkers, before driving in the opposite direction to distract the geeks. Jimmy drove down to the barn and saw Rick and Carl on the roof. He parked the RV in front of the barn, so that they could climb down. Unfortunately, a walker got into the RV and ate him alive. Rick and Carl climbed off the RV and ran into Claire. She hugged them quickly and expressed how happy she was to see them. Then a few walkers surrounded them.

"Go! Get out of here!" Claire told Rick and Carl. Rick refused.

"Your family needs you, now get the fuck away!" she yelled and shot a few walkers. Rick nodded and looked at her.

"Thank you," he said and picked Carl up. The two sprinted back to the house. Claire managed to get away from the walkers and ran towards the fence. A few walkers followed her but she took them down easily. As she was running, she tripped over a body and fell to the ground. The body reanimated and lunged at her. At first, she struggled but managed to grab hold of her machete. She sliced its head off and continued running. She watched some of the cars drive off the farm completely and ran even faster. When she got to the fence, she was too late; they had all gone. Or so she thought. A few walkers surrounded her.

"You want me you ugly fuckers?! You're gonna have to earn me!" she screamed as she shot them.

Daryl, who was waiting for her on his motorcycle further up the fence, heard the shots and shouting. He knew it was her and didn't hesitate to go back and get her. She was overpowered by walkers and refused to turn into one of them. She loaded the shotgun and held to her head. Suddenly, the walkers fell to the ground one by one. She turned around and saw Daryl shooting them from his motorcycle.

"I ain't got all day!" he yelled. She climbed over the fence and got onto the motorcycle. She held on tightly as Daryl drove away from the farm. When they got onto the road, they passed a few walkers.

"Daryl, we gotta head to the highway where we left those supplies for Sophia," she said. "They'll be there; I know it."

"No, we can't afford to take that risk."

"We have no choice, baby. You gotta trust me."

Daryl stopped the motorcycle and got off.

"I can't afford to lose you, Claire," he said. She got off too.

"We gotta go to the highway. It's our only option."

Daryl ignored her.

"Daryl, please!" she pleaded. He finally nodded. She leaned in and kissed him.

"I love you," she breathed.

Daryl didn't know what to say; no one's ever said that to him before. He broke the kiss and stepped back.

"I love you, too."

"Then trust me on this."

He nodded again and got back on his motorcycle. Claire climbed on behind him and rested her head on his back as they drove to the highway. On their way, they Daryl saw one of the group's cars up ahead.

"Look!" he said to Claire. She lifted his head and saw the car. She grinned as soon as she saw who was driving. It was Glenn and Maggie. Maggie grinned when she saw them so did Glenn when he noticed them. He rolled down the window and asked them where they were headed. They said the highway. Out of the blue, they heard another car come around. It was the pickup truck. T-Dog, Beth and Lori were inside. Everyone decide to head to the highway and Daryl and Claire led the way. When they got there, they saw Hershel, Carl and Rick. Everybody climbed out of their cars and hugged each other. Rick turned to Daryl.

"How'd you find 'em?" he asked. Daryl looked at Glenn.

"He was driving like a madman, I knew he had to be Asian," he joked. Glenn laughed it off.

"Where's the rest of us?" Claire asked.

"We're the only ones," Rick replied.

"Shane?" Lori asked. Rick shook his head.

"Andrea?" Glenn asked.

"She saved me then I lost her," Carol said.

"We saw her go down," T-Dog said sadly.

"Patricia?" Hershel asked.

"They took her right out of my hands!" Beth sobbed. Maggie hugged her.

"Jimmy? Did you see him?" Maggie asked. Rick nodded.

"He was in the RV. Got overrun."

"You definitely saw Andrea?" Claire asked T-Dog.

"She was surrounded by walkers," Lori said.

"Did you see her, though?" Claire asked again. Daryl climbed on his motorcycle.

"Imma go back," he said. Rick stopped him.

"No."

"We can't just leave her!"

"She isn't there. She's somewhere else or dead. We gotta keep movin'," Rick said. Daryl noticed a walker.

"I say move east," T-Dog suggested.

"Stay off the main roads. The bigger the road, more assholes like this guy," Daryl said and aimed his bowgun at an oncoming walker.

"No, I got it," Claire said and went to slice its head off. Its head fell to the ground and she stabbed its brain. The group developed a plan and drove off. A few hours later, Rick stopped. So did everyone else.

"You out?" Daryl asked. Rick nodded.

"We're runnin' on fumes."

"We can't stay here," Maggie said.

"We can't all fit in one car," Hershel said firmly. Claire zipped up her leather jacket.

"I'm freezing!" Carl said to Lori. She rubbed his arms and Rick handed his jacket to him.

"We'll build a fire," Lori told him. Claire grabbed her bow and arrow and looked at Daryl.

"We'll go get some wood," she offered. "We got lots of arrows, how are you doing on ammo?"

"Not enough" Rick simply said.

"Well we can't just sit here with our asses hangin' out!" Maggie told Rick.

"Watch your mouth," Hershel warned her. "Everybody listen to Rick."

"Alright, we'll set up a perimeter. In the morning we'll find gas and some supplies. We'll keep pushin' on," Rick instructed.

"Glenn and I could make a run now and try to scrunch up some gas," Maggie offered. Rick shot it down.

"No we stay together. God forbid something happens and someone gets stranded without a car," Rick said strictly. Glenn stepped forward.

"Rick, we are stranded now," he said in a calm tone.

"I know it looks bad, but we've all been through hell and worse, but at least we found each other. We're together. Let's keep it that way. We'll find shelter somewhere; there's gotta be someplace around here," Rick lectured.

"Rick, look around. There are walkers everywhere. They're migrating!" Glenn argued.

"There's gotta be a place. Not just where we hole up, but fortify. Pull ourselves together. Build a life for each other! I know it's out there; we just have to find it!" Rick argued back.

"Even if we do find a place, we can never be sure for how long we'll be safe. Look what happened with the farm; we fooled ourselves into thinking that that was safe," Maggie butted in.

"We won't make that mistake again," Hershel assured her. Rick sighed and looked around. He saw a small enclosed area and pointed to it.

"We'll make a camp over there tonight. Get back on the road at the break of day."

"Does this feel right to you?" Carol asked Claire. She didn't answer.

"What if walkers come through or another group like Randall's?" Beth asked. Daryl stepped forward.

"You know we found Randall; he turned but wasn't bit."

"How's that possible?" Beth asked.

"What the hell happened?" Lori asked. Claire looked at Glenn.

"Shane killed Randall. Just like he always wanted to," Claire told them.

"Then the herd got to him?" Lori asked. All eyes were on Rick.

"We're all infected," Rick finally said.

"What?" Daryl asked, stunned.

"Back and the CDC, Jenner told me. Whatever it is, we all carry it." .

"Why didn't you tell us?" Carol asked.

"It doesn't make a difference," he replied.

"You knew this whole time!" Glenn accused.

"How could I have known for sure? You saw-" Rick asked but got cut off by Glenn.

"That's not your call!" Glenn said, "When I found out about the walkers in the barn, I told for the good of everyone else!"

"I thought I'd be best if people didn't know," Rick supposed. There was a moment of silence and Rick finally just walked away, followed by Lori.

"How could he not have told us?" Carol sobbed.

"Why is it such a problem? Whether we know or not isn't going make our lives any easier. Rick is doing a terrific job at being the leader. No one asked him to do it. No one asked him to make all of the decisions. Hell, without him, most of us would be dead by now, so quit complaining about everything and thank him. I know I'm going to," Claire told the group and sat down on the side of the road. A few seconds later, Carl went to sit next to her. "You are one brave kid," she told him. He smiled.

"You know, you're like the older sister I never had," he whispered. Her heart melted and she couldn't help but put her arm around him and hug him. Then Daryl sat next to her too.

"My two favorite boys!" she joked as Daryl put his arm around her neck. She put her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes.


	10. Chapter 10

**Evening**

The group made a small fire inside the enclosed area. Claire and T-Dog stood on the walls, keeping guard while Daryl got put some more wood in the fire.

"We're not safe with him. Keeping something like that away from us," Carol whispered to Daryl. She made real sure not to let Claire hear. Daryl shrugged and looked up at Claire.

"I think she's right," he said, referring to Claire.

"He's just gonna pull you down," she said, trying to make him agree with her.

"No, Rick's right by me."

"You're his henchman and I'm a burden. You deserve better."

Daryl started getting a little annoyed."What do you want?" he asked her rhetorically.

"A man with honor."

"Rick has 'honor'," he said and ended the discussion.

"I think we should take our chances," Maggie told Glenn.

"Don't be foolish," Hershel said to her. "There's no food, no fuel and no ammo," he said. Then there was a noise.

"What was that?" Claire asked.

"Could be anything. Where I come from, we got possums, walkers," Daryl said and stood up.

"We need to leave! What are we waitin' for?" Carol said and got up too. Rick suddenly appeared.

"The last thing we need is for everybody to be runnin' around in the dark," he said. "We don't have the vehicles. No one's travelin' on foot."

"Don't panic!" Hershel told Maggie.

"I'm not panicking!" she guaranteed. "I'm not sittin' here, waitin' for another herd to come through. We need to move, now!"

"No one is going anywhere!" Rick commanded.

"Do something!" Carol cried out.

"I am doin' somethin'! I'm keepin' this group together; alive. And I've been doing that all along, no matter what. I didn't ask for this! I killed my best friend for you people, for God's sakes!" Rick yelled. Everybody was shocked. "You saw what he was like; how he pushed me. How he compromised us. How he threatened us. He staged the whole Randall thing; led me out to put a bullet in my back! He gave me no choice! He was my friend, but he came after me!" he told them, telling them the truth. Carl burst out crying. "My hands are clean! Maybe you people are better off without me. Go ahead! I say that there is another place for us, but maybe it's just a pipe dream. Maybe I'm fooling myself again. Why don't you go find out yourselves? Send me a postcard!" he went on. Everybody was taken aback. "If you can do better, let's see how far you get," he offered. No one dared to step forward. "No takers? Fine, but let's get one thing straight; if you're stayin', this isn't a democracy anymore."

Everyone was silent. Rick told them to get some rest. Claire hopped off the wall and lay down next to Daryl. They got real close to conserve body heat and fell asleep. They had a long day head of them.


	11. Authors note

Hey guys :D

So I realized something: I got someone's name wrong. Do you remember the part when they go to the CDC? Well I got the doctor's name wrong…how fucking embarrassing, right? It's actually Edwin Jenner, not Edmund. Just thought I'd clarify that. Anyway, I hope you guys are enjoying this story. You're gonna be in for a real surprise…maybe. Please review and if you have any questions or comments please don't hesitate. Well I'm gonna go back to writing the other chapters. Oh and just so you know this is my first fanfiction ever. Hell, I don't even know how to use this website properly yet. Oh well. You probably don't give a shit anyway. One more thing: Want to know a joke about paper?

Never mind. It's tearible. Haha. Gotcha.

Anyway thanks for reading my story.


	12. Chapter 12

**7 months later**

Winter ended. Lori was defiantly pregnant. The group decided to keep on the road. They stayed in multiple houses, changing every second day. They stumbled across a prison. It was overrun by walkers, but the group managed to eliminate them. They slept in Cell Block C. Each person had their own cell, except for Claire and Daryl, who slept on the perch.

"Tomorrow, I'm draggin' one of those mattresses out here," Claire whispered to Daryl. He wrapped his arm around her and pulled her closer.

"You do what you gotta do," he replied and buried his face in her hair. She closed her eyes.

"Love you."

"Love you, too," he replied and they fell asleep.

That was how the first night went. They both hoped it would remain that way.

The next morning, the guys went around and stripped the prison guards. They brought back grenades, ammo and armor. When they got back to the cell block, Claire and the guys went through everything. Daryl lifted up a helmet and brains poured out.

"I ain't wearin' this shit!" he told them and put it down on the table. Claire laughed a bit. "Would you wear it?" he asked her. She shook her head.

"Hell no," she laughed.

"Hershel?" Carol called and walked into the room. He followed her.

"Everything okay?" Rick asked. Carol nodded.

"Everything's fine; nothing to worry about," she said and went back to Lori. Claire and Daryl looked at each other and shrugged. They decided to go to the cafeteria to find some food. Maggie, Glenn and Hershel tagged along, too. Carl wanted to go, but got shot down by Rick.

"Let's go!" he said and they started to walk. They went to the other part of the prison. It was dark and there were walkers. Nothing the group couldn't manage, though. They walked through another cell block. There were bodies everywhere. Glenn painted arrows on the walls, so that they could find their way back. They passed through the cell block and made their way through a hallway.

"Get back!" Rick commanded as he saw the large group of walkers ahead. They turned around and headed in a different direction. They bumped into another group of walkers and lost Maggie and Glenn.

"Where are Glenn and Maggie?" Claire whispered. They looked around.

"We gotta go back!" Hershel whispered.

"Okay, which way?" Daryl asked. The group started heading back, to get them. As they were walking, Hershel's leg got bit. Claire shot the walker down, and Maggie and Glenn came running to them.

"No daddy!" Maggie sobbed. Rick and Glenn carried him, while Claire and Daryl took point. They ran and ran until Claire found a door. It was handcuffed closed, but Glenn took care of it. They went inside and lay Hershel on the ground. Claire, Daryl and T-Dog leaned against the door to prevent walkers from going in. Rick took off his belt and tied it tightly around Hershel's calf. He picked up and axe and hacked it off, making Hershel pass out in the process.

"So what now?" Rick asked.

"Duck," Claire replied. Rick and the others ducked while she pointed her shotgun at some random people behind the counter. They were prisoners.

"What happened to him?" one of the random people asked.

"He got bit," Daryl said and pointed his crossbow at them. The random man slowly pointed hi gun at Hershel.

"Easy now," Claire told them. T-Dog pointed his gun at the random's, too.

"You got medical supplies?" Glenn asked and walked straight into the room the men came out of. Glenn found a table with wheels and rolled it into the room. They put Hershel on it.

"T, the door!" Rick yelled. T-Dog opened the door.

"Hey, don't open that!" One of the prisoners said.

"We got this," Claire said and took out her machete. Claire and T-Dog took down the walkers.

"Daryl! C'mon!" Claire yelled as they ran out the room. They ran back to the Cell Block C and put Hershel on a bed. Claire and Daryl aimed their guns at the door, expecting the prisoners to come. Sure enough, they did.

"That's close enough," Daryl said. The prisoners stood still.

"Cell Block C? That's mine," one of them said.

"Today's your lucky day, fella's; you've been pardoned by the State of Georgia. You're free to go," Daryl spat coldly.

"What you got going on in there?" the prisoner asked and stepped forward.

"None of your Goddamn business," Claire said.

"Don't be telling me what my business is," the prisoner said.

"C'mon, let's just leave 'em alone. We're free now," another prisoner said.

"Mans gotta point," Daryl said.

"A group of civilians, breaking into a prison you got no business being in, got me thinking there ain't anywhere for us to go," the main prisoner said.

"Well why don't you go find out?" Daryl sarcastically asked.

"Maybe we'll just be going now," another prisoner suggested.

"We ain't leaving," the main one said.

"Well you ain't coming here neither," T-Dog said as he walked into the room. The prisoner pointed his gun at him.

"This is my house, my rules. I'll go where I damn well please," he said. Then Rick came into the room.

"There ain't nothin' for you here, so go back to your sandbox!" Daryl yelled.

"Hey! Everybody relax! There's no need for this!" Rick shouted.

"How many of you in there?" the prisoner asked.

"Too many for you to handle," Rick replied.

"Why didn't you take 'em to a hospital?" the prisoner asked.

"How long have you been locked up in here?" Rick asked.

"About ten months."

Rick ad Daryl explained to the prisoners how half of the population got wiped. They prisoners didn't believe it, and went outside to see for themselves.

"'Where'd you come from?" The main guy asked.

"Atlanta," Rick replied. The prisoner stepped forward.

"Where you headed?"

"For now, nowhere," Rick said, getting annoyed.

"I guess you could take that area down there near the water. Should be comfortable," the prisoner; Tomas, said.

"We're using that field for crops," Claire pointed out, "We killed all the walkers; this prison is ours."

"Slow down, sweetheart," Tomas said. Daryl stepped forward protectively.

"You snatched the locks off our doors!" the other prisoner claimed.

"We'll give you new locks, if that's how you want it," Rick offered sarcastically.

"It's our prison!" Tomas insisted, "We were here first."

"Locked in a broom closet?" Rick smirked, "we took it, set you free. It's ours. We spilled blood."

"We're moving back into our cellblock," Tomas said firmly.

"You're gonna have to find your own," Claire told the prisoners.

"It is ours. I still got personal artifacts in there!" Tomas yelled aggressively and took his gun out of his pants. Daryl and Claire quickly aimed their weapons at him.

"Whoa whoa whoa, maybe we can work somethin' out!" one of the prisoners suggested.

"I don't see that happening," Tomas said and looked at Rick.

"Neither do I," Rick said grimly.

"I ain't going back in that cafeteria for one more minute," Tomas told Rick.

"There are other cellblocks," the other prisoner, Axel, said calmly.

"You could leave," Daryl smirked, "try your luck out on the road."

Tomas went silent and looked at everybody.

"If these four pussies can do all this, the least we can do is clear another cellblock," Tomas said in defeat.

"With what?" one of the prisoners asked. The prisoners looked at Rick.

"Lenny here will spot us some real weapons, won't you, boss?" Tomas asked Rick. Rick thought about it for a while.

"How stocked is that cafeteria?" he asked them.

"Only a little left."

"We'll take half. In exchange, we'll help clear out a cellblock," Rick offered. Another prisoner stepped forward.

"Didn't you hear him? There's only a little left!"

"You got more food than you got choices," Rick said, getting impatient, "you pay, we'll play. We'll clear out a block for you, but you'll keep to it."

"Alright," Tomas nodded.

"But let's be clear: if we see you out here, anywhere near our people, if I so much even catch a whiff of your scent, I will kill you," Rick threatened.

"Deal."

And with that, they went down to the cafeteria to claim their part of the deal.

"Is this what you call a little bit of food?" Daryl asked as soon as he saw the amount.

"Goes up quickly," Tomas replied, "You can have a bag of corn. Some tuna fish-"

"You said half," Claire corrected him. Rick walked over to a door.

"What's in there?" he asked and opened it.

"Don't open that!" one of the prisoners warned, but Rick had already opened it. He covered his mouth quickly and gagged while shutting it, once he realized what was in there. It was the 'bathroom'. The prisoners laughed at him.

"Can't wait for my own pot to piss in," Axel said. The four ignored him and took some food.

"You guys go ahead, I'll watch these sons of a bitches," Daryl said.

"I'll stay," Claire offered.

"No," Daryl said strictly. Claire didn't argue, instead, she picked a few bags of food and went back to cellblock C with Rick and T-Dog.

"There's a lot more where this came from!" Claire joked as they entered cellblock C. She put the bags down while Lori told Rick how Hershel was doing. When everything was packed away, they went back to Daryl and the prisoners. They were developing a plan to clear out a cellblock. Claire spread the weapons down on the table. There were no firearms, just sticks, poles, axes and knives.

"Why use that when I can use this?" Tomas asked cockily.

"We don't use guns unless our backs are up against the wall. Noise attracts them," Daryl pointed out.

"We'll go in two by two," Rick said. They all nodded. ,"Daryl will run point with Claire and I'll bring up the rear with T. Stay tight. Hold formation, no matter how close the walkers get. Anyone runs off, you'll get mistaken for a walker. End up with an axe in the head."

"That's where you aim. These things only go down with a headshot," Claire put in plain words.

"You ain't gotta tell us how to take down a man," Tomas said. Claire raised an eyebrow.

"Suit yourself. But when one of those 'men' rips your stomach open and eats you alive, don't say I didn't warn you," she said and smiled mockingly.

"Just remember to go for the brain," Rick said to them. They grabbed their weapons and made their way to the cellblock. They walked down a dark hallway and spotted a few walkers in the distance.

"They're comin'!" Axel said loudly.

"Shut up!" Claire whispered. Daryl gave them the signal to wait, but the prisoners just ignored him and charged towards the walkers. T-Dog, Rick, Claire and Daryl looked at each other and shrugged. They let the prisoners kill the walkers and continued walking.

"It's gotta be the brain," Daryl reminded them and shot an oncoming walker with his crossbow.

"I hear you; the brain," Axel said and hit the head of another walker.

"Like that?" he asked Daryl. He nodded and they killed off four more walkers.

"Stay close and hold formation. No more prisoner crap," Rick ordered. Slowly, Big Tiny, one of the prisoners backed away, but got scratched by a walker. Claire quickly stabbed of the walkers that were surrounding him and Tomas shot the others. Claire shot him a dirty look and looked at Big Tiny's wound.

"I don't feel anything; it's just a scratch," Big Tiny said to Rick as he examined the scratch.

"I'm sorry man," Rick said.

"I can fight!" Big Tiny assured them.

"You cut off that old guy's leg off to save his life!" Andrew, another one of the prisoners said.

"Look where his wound is!" Claire said irritably.

"Guys! I'm fine!" Big Tiny yelled, "Look at me; I'm not changing into one of those things."

"There has to be something we can do," Andrew said. Claire and Daryl looked at each other. They knew what had to be done.

"We can just lock him up," Oscar suggested.

"We gotta do something! Why you just standing there?!" Andrew demanded. Rick sighed.

"There's nothing we can do," he said to the prisoners.

"You son of a bitch!" Andrew yelled. Then, suddenly, Big Tiny hit the ground. Tomas had hit him. Then he stabbed Big Tiny repeatedly, until he had no more head. Claire gagged at the sight.

"Jesus!" She said under her breath and looked away. Daryl put his hand on her back, trying to comfort her. When Tomas was done, he had blood all over himself. He looked at everybody.

"Let's go," Rick said. They continued walking and went inside the laundry room. They went through it until reaching another door.

"I ain't opening that," Tomas said after Daryl threw the keys at him.

"Yes you are. Only open one of them; we need to control this," Rick instructed. Tomas finally picked the keys up and unlocked one of the doors. Everybody readied their weapons.

"You bitches ready?" Tomas asked before slowly opening both of the doors.

"I said only one of them!" Rick yelled as he killed a walker.

"Shit happens!" Tomas replied and killed one himself. Claire sliced two of the walker's heads off and stabbed one in the brain. She quickly looked at Tomas, and noticed him nearly slice off Rick's head. Then he stabbed a walker and threw it on Rick, causing him to fall down. Claire quickly sliced its head off and helped Rick up, before killing off the last of the walkers. Rick and Claire looked at Tomas, once all of the walkers were dead.

"Sorry, boss," he said after noticing them.

"I get it; shit happens," Rick mocked. Tomas grabbed his gun to shoot Rick; But Claire quickly took her machete out and stabbed him in the head.

"NO!" Andrew yelled. But it was too late. Claire watched as Tomas's lifeless body hit the ground, before realizing what she had done. She put her hand over her mouth in disgust.

"Holy shit! I stabbed the hell outta that guy," she said. Everybody looked at her. Andrew quickly lifted his baseball bat to hit her, but Rick kicked him down before Daryl could.

"Easy now," Daryl said and pointed his crossbow at him. Andrew slowly got up and ran away.

"I got 'em!" Rick yelled and ran after him.

Daryl and T-Dog made Axel and Oscar get down on their knees. Claire sat down on the floor and tried her best not to puke.

"First time killin' a man?" Daryl joked. Claire nodded.

"First time killing a man," she confirmed. Rick came back into the room and looked at Claire.

"You alright?" he asked. She nodded and stood up. Rick pointed his gun at Oscar's head.

"Daryl, lets end this know!" Rick yelled and pointed his gun at Axel.

"Wait! Please, it was them. It wasn't us!" Axel pleased.

"Well that's convenient!" Rick yelled.

"You saw what he did to Big Tiny! He was my friend! Please! We ain't like 'em! I wanna live!"

Rick turned around and pointed his gun at Oscar. "What about you?" he asked.

"I have never pleaded in my life, and I ain't gonna start now. You do what you gotta do."

Rick lowered his gun and the group took the prisoners to their new cellblock. There were dead bodies everywhere.

"I knew these guys," Axel said sadly. "They were good men."

Rick looked at Claire, T-Dog and Daryl. "Let's go," he said, and with that, they made their way back to cellblock C. When they got back, Carl rushed to them.

"Hershel stopped breathing. Mom saved him, though," he said. Glenn came out of Hershel's cell.

"It's true," he said. Rick and T-Dog went into his cell to see if Hershel was alright. Daryl and Claire stood at the door. Then, Hershel's eyes opened. Rick took his hand immediately.

"Daddy?" Maggie breathed. Hershel looked at her.

"Daddy!" Beth said happily and rushed to his side. Daryl and Claire smiled at each other. Rick unlocked the handcuffs. After a while, Lori got up and left, followed by Rick. Claire turned to Daryl.

"Guard tower. Now," she instructed. Daryl looked at everybody, then back at Claire. He nodded and the two went up to the guard tower.

"Everything alright?" he asked. Claire nodded.

"Back in Atlanta, when Glenn found Rick and me, I met your brother. He threatened T-Dog. Started beating the shit outta him. I got in the way and Merle punched me. I was out for a few hours, but that's not the point. It's my fault he got cuffed. If I hadn't gotten in the way, Rick probably wouldn't have handcuffed him to that pole. I'm sorry," Claire said. Daryl sighed.

"No. It ain't your fault. It ain't Rick's fault. It ain't T-Dog's fault. It was Merle's fault. If he wasn't such a dick, Rick wouldn't have tied him up. Don't blame yourself for someone else's actions," Daryl assured her. She was leaning against a table and Daryl stepped forward to kiss her. He held her waist as their tongues danced together. She put her arms around his shoulders as he proceeded to take her tank top off. He looked down at her breasts and smirked. She smiled as she took his vest off.

"I'm so glad that Glenn found you," he whispered and kissed her again. She unclipped her bra as he took off his pants. They leaned in for another kiss and broke apart.

"I love you Claire Miller," he breathed.

"I love you Daryl Dixon," she replied and the two proceeded to have one of best evenings ever.


	13. Chapter 13

**The next day**

Carol, Maggie, Glenn and Rick moved the vehicles to the courtyard in the morning.

"Where're Claire and Daryl? We could use a hand," Carol asked. Maggie and Glenn grinned at each other and looked up at the guard tower.

"Up in the guard tower," Glenn said. Maggie giggled.

"Daryl! Claire!" Rick yelled. Slowly, a shirtless Daryl came out, looking like a complete mess. Everybody smiled at each other.

"Yo!" he yelled as he put on his grey vest.

"You comin'?" Rick yelled.

"We could use a hand!" Glenn added.

"We'll be right down!" Daryl yelled and then went back inside. A few minutes later, Claire and Daryl came down and joined the others.

"Yo! Rick! Look at this!" T-Dog said and noticed Oscar and Axel coming towards them. Rick's smile faded and he immediately walked towards the prisoners.

"Come with me," he said to Daryl. Daryl obeyed and they went to see what the problem was. "That's close enough," Rick warned as Oscar and Axel stepped forward. They stopped and looked at Rick. "We had an agreement."

"Please, mister. We know that," Axel said. "We made a deal, but you gotta understand. We can't live in that place another minute. You followin' me? Old bodies, people we knew. Blood, brains everywhere. There're ghosts."

"Move the bodies out," Daryl suggested.

"You should be burning them," T-Dog said.

"We tried. We did," Axel said. Oscar stepped forward.

"The fence is down on the far side of the prison. Every time we drag the bodies out, those things just line up. We end up dropping the bodies and running inside," he explained.

"Look, we had nothing to do with Tomas and Andrew. Nothing. You trying to prove a point, you proved it, bro. We'll do whatever it takes, just please don't make us go back in that place," Axel pleaded. Rick thought about it for a while then looked over at Daryl, who shook his head. The group decided to let them live in the front guard tower, just between the gates. Everybody then went behind the nearby bus to discuss the matter. Apparently T-Dog wanted to let the prisoners into their cellblock.

"Are you serious? You want them living in the cell next to you? They'll just be waiting for a chance to grab our weapons. You wanna go back to sleepin' with one eye open?" Rick asked T-Dog.

"I never stopped. Bring them into the cellblock, if we send them off, we might as well execute them ourselves," T-Dog replied. Rick and Maggie sighed.

"I don't know, Axel seems a little unstable," Glenn said uneasily.

"They're strangers. It feels weird all of a sudden havin' other people around," Maggie whispered.

"You brought us in," T-Dog said to her.

"Yeah but you rocked up with a shot boy in your arms. You didn't give us a choice," Maggie slightly joked.

"They can't even kill walkers," Claire pointed out.

"They might have less blood on our hands then we do," T-Dog said and looked at Rick.

"I knew guys like this. Hell, I grew up with 'em. They ain't psychos. I could've been in there with them just as easily as I'm out here with you guys," Daryl said. T-Dog looked at him.

"So you're with me?" he asked Daryl.

"Hell no," he replied. Claire held his hand. "Let 'em take their chances out on the road, just like we did."

"I arrested this kid, 19 years old. Wanted for stabbin' his girlfriend. The kid blubbered like a baby during the interrogation, during the trial. He was acquitted due to insufficient evidence. Two weeks later, shot another girl. We've been through too much," Rick said and ended the discussion. The group then went back to work.

"Move the cars to the upper yard," Rick instructed Claire and handed her a set of car keys. She nodded and climbed into the pickup truck. Maggie and Carol took the other cars. Daryl, Rick and Glenn went down to patch up the fence. As Claire parked the truck, she spotted Lori, Carl and Beth helping Hershel walk down the stairs. She got out and smiled when she saw Hershel was back on his feet. Carol and Maggie immediately went to them. Claire looked across the prison yard and watched Daryl, Rick and Glenn's reaction. Then she heard moaning and slowly turned around to see a group of walkers.

"Walkers!" she announced. Everybody turned around and started shooting.

"No!" Rick yelled and started sprinting back to the prison. Daryl and Glenn quickly caught up and they ran back to everyone.

"Get out of there!" Daryl yelled while running. When they got to the gates, it was locked. Glenn unlocked it quickly, while the others tried to kill the walkers.

"Lori!" Maggie yelled to Lori and Carl. The three of them ran into the building, while Beth and Hershel went back to the cellblock. Claire stood on the bench and killed as many walkers as she could. Carol and T-Dog went through another door, and left Claire.

"Claire! Run!" Daryl yelled. She ignored him and climbed up on top of the pickup truck, fighting off any walker that tried to climb up. Eventually, the guys came and killed off the rest of the walkers. A walker managed to climb up onto the truck while Claire was reloading her handgun. Daryl quickly came to the rescue and shot it with his crossbow. He smiled at her and continued killing walkers. She jumped off and joined in. Suddenly, an ear-piercing alarm went off and pain shot through her back.

"Are you kiddin' me?" Daryl said, annoyed. Claire looked around and noticed that the sound was attracting many walkers. Rick went over to Axel and Oscar and demanded some answers. They explained what was happening and told Rick that it was the backup generators. They immediately went to find the generators and when they got there, Claire and Daryl held the door closed.

"You okay?" Daryl asked her, while pushing against the door.

"Never been better," she replied and pushed too. Eventually they couldn't hold it any longer and opened the door. They killed the walkers off and closed the door again. Then they heard a gunshot and looked at each other. It was Oscar. He shot Andrew, who was apparently alive. Rick managed to switch the generators off and the group went around the prison, looking for everybody else. They had no luck and decided to head back to Hershel and Beth. Just as they lost all hope, they heard the soft sound of a baby. Rick slowly turned around and saw Maggie and Carl, holding a baby. Maggie was crying as she walked towards Rick. Lori was nowhere to be seen. Everybody knew what that meant. Rick walked over to Carl and broke down. Daryl looked down at Claire, who was in tears too, and hugged her. She buried her face in his chest, while Glenn went over to hug Maggie. Eventually, everybody calmed down.

"Let me see the baby," Hershel demanded. Maggie obeyed and took the baby to him.

"What are we gonna feed it? We got anything a baby can eat?" Daryl asked, extremely concerned.

"Good news is she's healthy, but she needs formula soon, or she won't survive," Hershel said and looked at Daryl.

"No way, not her. We ain't losing nobody else. I'm going for a run," Daryl said and grabbed his crossbow. Before Claire could volunteer, Maggie spoke up.

"I'll go, too," she said. He nodded.

"Me too," Glenn said. Daryl asked Claire to keep an eye on Carl and assigned people jobs. Rick stood up and grabbed his axe. Then he rushed inside the building that Maggie and Carl came out of.

"Rick!" Claire yelled after him.

"Get the gates," Daryl told Claire. "C'mon people! We're gonna lose a life!"

It was decided that only Maggie and Daryl would go, because Daryl could only take one person on is his motorcycle. As soon as they left, Glenn and Claire decided to dig Carol, Lori and T-Dog's graves. All of a sudden, Claire dropped the shovel and ran away. Glenn followed her and when her found her, she was on her knees, puking.

"You okay?" he asked. She nodded. He held her hair back for her and rubbed her back.

"Must've been something I ate," she suggested and got up. Glenn nodded. "Let just go dig those graves."

**2 Hours later**

Everybody was waiting for Daryl and Maggie in cellblock C. Claire was holding a hungry, distressed baby, when Maggie and Daryl walked in.

"We're back!" Maggie announced and put the bags down. Daryl put his crossbow down and went over to Claire and the baby. He took her out of Claire's arms and everybody stepped forward, just in case. Beth brought the baby a bottle and Daryl fed the baby carefully.

"Shh," Daryl said to the baby. Claire's heart was beating rapidly. Soon, the baby was silent. Daryl looked up at everybody, proudly. "She got a name yet?" he asked Carl.

"I was thinking maybe Sophia, Carol too. Andrea or Amy. Maybe even Jacquie, Patricia or Lori," Carl said. There was a moment of silence. Daryl looked down at the baby again.

"You like that? Huh? Little Ass-Kicker?" Daryl said softly to her. Then he looked up at everybody. "What about that?" he asked. Everybody laughed. "You like that? Huh, sweetheart?"

"It's perfect," Claire said. Daryl smiled at her and handed Little Ass-Kicker to Claire. She cradled the baby and Daryl put his arms around Claire. Everybody smiled. They made a perfect family.

"Look at us, Claire. We've turned into normal people," Daryl joked. Hershel smiled warmly. Everyone eventually went to bed, leaving Claire, a sleeping baby and Daryl alone.

"You'll make a great mom," he whispered. Claire bit her lip.

"Only if you'll be the dad," she replied and kissed him. They put Little Ass-Kicker to bed and went up to their perch. Claire's back pained slightly, but she ignored it and fell asleep.

**One week later**

When Daryl woke up, Claire was nowhere to be seen. He immediately got up and went outside. He found her sitting on a bench all by herself. He went to her and sat next to her.

"You alright?" he asked. She smiled and looked at him.

"I don't feel so good," she said and decided not to tell him about how sore her breasts were. He rubbed her back.

"Why don't you just stay inside today? With Little Ass-Kicker and Beth," he suggested. She nodded and put her head on his shoulder. After a while, the two got up and headed inside. Everybody and Little Ass-Kicker was awake, so Claire picked her up and held her. Daryl, Carl and Oscar decided to go and explore the rest of the prison. Glenn and Maggie were out getting more baby formula and Rick was outside doing whatever. Eventually, he came inside the cellblock and saw Claire holding Little Ass-Kicker. Claire smiled and gave her to him. He held the infant up and smiled proudly.

"She's beautiful," Claire said. Rick smiled at her as he held Little Ass-Kicker close and cuddled her. They went outside for a while to get some fresh air, and then Rick noticed something. He handed the baby to Beth and asked Claire to go with him to investigate. They walked down to the fence and noticed a woman carrying baby formula. Rick and Claire looked at each other and then back at the woman. The mysterious woman started killing off a few walkers with a katana and Claire noticed that she was injured. Claire immediately took out her machete and made her way to the other side. Rick followed. The lady randomly passed out and Rick and Claire picked her up and took her inside. They placed her on the floor and Claire poured some water over her to wake her up. It worked and the woman slowly gained conscience.

"Who are you?" Claire asked calmly. The woman got up and reached for her sword. Claire kicked it away. "We're not gonna hurt you, unless you try something stupid," she said. Then the woman calmed down.

"Claire?" she heard someone say. She turned around and saw Daryl and Carl come out of the cells. "Who the hell is this?"

"We found her," Claire replied. Daryl came closer.

"You guys might wanna see this," Daryl said. Claire and Rick nodded and followed Daryl and Carl to a cell. They gasped when they saw who was sitting on the bed. It was Carol. Claire immediately stepped forward and hugged her, followed by Rick. Carl explained how he and Daryl found her and they spoke a about Lori and the baby. After a while, Claire, Rick and Daryl went back to the mysterious lady.

"We can tend to that wound," Claire told her. "First, you gotta tell us how you found us."

"And why you were carrying formula," Rick added.

"The supplies were dropped by a young Asian guy with a pretty girl," the woman said. Glenn and Maggie.

"What happened?" Rick asked. The woman was silent.

"Were they attacked?" Hershel asked. The woman shook her head.

"They were taken."

"Taken? By who?" Rick asked.

"The same son of a bitch that shot me," she replied.

"Look, these are our people. Now, you tell us what happened now!" Rick demanded and grabbed her wound.

"Hey!" Claire yelled at Rick. The woman screamed in pain.

"Don't you ever touch me again!" She yelled.

"Well you better start talkin', or you'll have a problem bigger than a gunshot wound!" Daryl told her and pointed his crossbow at her.

"Find 'em yourself," the lady coldly said.

"You came here for a reason," Rick said to her. She sighed.

"There's a town; Woodbury. About 75 survivors, I think they were taken there."

"A whole town?" Claire asked and raised an eyebrow. The woman nodded.

"It's run by a man who calls himself 'the Governor'. Pretty boy, charming, Jim Jones type. They were the military wannabe's."

"You know a way in?" Rick asked.

"Place is secured from walkers, but we could slip or way through."

"Excuse me!" Claire said and randomly stormed out. She ran outside and threw up again. Daryl ran after her and helped her hold her hair back.

"Jesus!" he remarked. When she was done, she looked up at Daryl.

"I'm sorry. I don't know what's happening to me," she said and whipped her mouth.

"Maybe you should speak to Hershel. It looks serious. Maybe food poisonin' or something," he said. Claire nodded and the two went back inside. She went straight into a vacant cellblock and slept. By the time she woke up, it was already night time. She got up and her breasts were still sore, as well as her back. She ignored it and looked for Daryl. He was nowhere to be seen. She saw Carl sitting at the table, however, and joined him.

"They went to Woodbury about 4 hours ago," Carl explained. Claire was a bit disappointed that they went without her, but got over it.

"Where's Little Ass-Kicker?" she asked him. He smiled.

"Judith. That's her official name. She's with Carol," he said. Claire smiled. Her mother's name was Judith.

"That was my mother's name," she said. He didn't say anything. "How about a thumb war?" she asked. He smiled and nodded.

"One, two, three, four I declare a thumb war. Five, six, seven, eight try to keep your finger straight!"

After a few rounds, Carl decided to hit the hay. Claire went to her and Daryl's makeshift bed on the floor and lay there until going back to sleep.


	14. Chapter 14

Hey it's me again.

I just wanna say that I read over this story and realized that there are a shit load of errors in this fanfiction. Please ignore them though and continue reading. I'll be real careful when writing the next chapters. Please forgive me.

I'm sorry.


	15. Chapter 15

In the morning, Claire woke up with cramps. She got up and decided to talk to Hershel and Carol about her sickness.

"Mornin'!" Hershel said as soon as he saw Claire. She was holding her stomach in pain.

"Hey. You have a sec?" she asked Hershel. He nodded and the two stepped into a random cell to talk.

"What's the matter?" he asked. Claire sighed.

"I think something's wrong; I've been puking an awful lot and I have cramps and back pains. I've never been through anything like this. And, my breasts are killing me," she whispered, a bit embarrassed. Hershel sighed and went to his cell quickly. He came back with a little box.

"Here. Lori gave this to me just in case. Read the instructions. When you have your answers, come back to me," he said and walked out. Claire slowly looked down at the box and when she saw what it was, gasped in complete shock. She read the instructions and did what it said. She went outside, around the corner, where nobody would see her and did what the instructions told her to do. She waited a while and when she saw the result, burst out into tears. She was pregnant.


	16. please read

Hello to whoever is reading this. There won't be any more updates until I get more reviews. It's kind of bumming me out so I've decided to stop for a while. If there is anybody out there that actually likes this story, please review and favorite or something to show me that I haven't been wasting my time. Again, I know there are a lot of mistakes, but I'm trying my best to correct them. Thanks.


	17. Chapter 17

She spent the rest of her day sulking and crying. How could it even be possible? _They used protection. _She didn't go back to Hershel; instead, she just stayed in one of the empty cells. She waited for Daryl and Rick to come back. She wasn't ready to be a mother. What would Daryl say? The group already had to look after Judith, now another baby. It was late afternoon when Carl announced that the group was back. She got up immediately and went outside to see for herself. She saw Rick, Maggie, Mishonne and Glenn, but no Daryl. She knew what that meant. Claire couldn't contain herself and broke down. Rick rushed to her side immediately.

"Hey, he's okay. He's still alive," he said and held her. "He found Merle. They went off on their own. I'm sorry."

"No, you don't get it," she cried.

"Yes I do. I know how it feels to lose somebody," he assured her. She shook her head.

"I need him!" she yelled. Rick tried his best to comfort her.

"It's gonna be okay," he said. She pushed him away.

"No! I'm pregnant! I'm carrying his child!" she yelled. Everybody was shocked. She stood there in silence. "I found out this morning. I'm sorry, I didn't mean for this to happen!" she sobbed. Rick stepped forward and hugged her again. Everybody was still shocked. As soon as she cooled down, they went back inside to eat.

"You're sure of it?" Rick asked Claire. She nodded.

"Took a test," she confirmed. Rick felt sorry for her. Everybody did. When she was done eating, she moved her things into a cell and slept.

In the morning, she opened her eyes and saw Rick looking down at her.

"Are you okay?" he asked and sat down on bed. She sat up and wiped her face.

"I'm so sorry, Rick. I really didn't mean for all of this. I was thinkin', I could always take some-"

"No. You're gonna be a mom with or without Daryl. You have us. We'll all pitch in," Rick said firmly.

"It's not your call. I don't want to bring a baby into this world," she whispered. Rick shook his head.

"I won't let you throw a life away like that, so just save it," Rick told her. She started crying again. Rick moved up closer to her and consoled her. She buried her face in his chest and cried.

"You're right. I have to keep it," she finally said. Rick rubbed her back and stood up. "Thank you," she said to him. He nodded and left the cell. Claire decided to get up too and went to eat something. When Maggie saw her, she immediately stood up and hugged her. "You two okay?" Claire asked her and Glenn. They nodded and Glenn handed her a bowl of food. She forced herself to eat even though she felt like complete shit. When she was done, she decided to get some fresh air with Hershel.

"So, you're pregnant, huh?" he started. Claire nodded sadly and crossed her arms.

"Yeah."

"Don't worry, you're gonna be a great mother."

"Thanks."

Hershel sighed. "What did you do before the world went down the drain?" he asked, trying to change the subject. Claire smiled weakly.

"I worked at a bar," she replied. Hershel smiled as the two sat down on a nearby bench. "Hershel, I'm scared," she admitted. He sighed and looked at her. She continued. "What if I lose it? Or what if I end up like Lori?"

"Stop. You're gonna be fine. As long as you take care of it and love it," he said.

"Maybe I should give it up," Claire suggested. Hershel shook his head.

"Not on my watch."

"But I can't do this without Daryl," she said and wiped her face.

"Yes you can. Stop doubting yourself," he said firmly. Claire held her stomach.

"I still can't believe it," she said and looked down.

"Well believe it, because it's real," he said and left, giving her some alone time. She put her feet up on the bench and put her head down. After a while, she started crying again, but not because she was sad about the baby; but because she was thinking about Daryl.


	18. Chapter 18

**Two days later**

Claire spent the past two days sleeping and crying again. Here she was; a twenty-seven year old pregnant woman in the middle of a zombie apocalypse, not to mention that the father of her unborn child abandoned her in her time of need. She wanted to hate him. She didn't know how she felt. Claire was sitting on a bench outside, with Carol and Axel, when Axel suddenly dropped dead. Then a random truck drove right through the gates and onto the field. Walkers slowly emerged from the back of the truck and some random people were shooting from outside the gates. Carol got down and used Axel's body as a shield. Claire ran towards Carl, who was oblivious to what was happening and threw him to the ground, shielding him. The two immediately started shooting at the mysterious people. There was a sniper standing in one of the guard towers, but Claire quickly shot him down. The people eventually left, but there were still a lot of walkers to deal with. Claire looked around for Rick, and noticed that he was outside of the prison. Before she could run towards him, Glenn and Michonne climbed into the pickup truck to get Hershel and help Rick. There were walkers on the field, so Maggie closed the top gate. Claire and Carl went inside and had something to eat. After a while, the others came inside too, but everybody was surprised to see two other familiar faces; Merle and Daryl. Claire's jaw dropped as soon as soon as she saw him. Daryl looked her and saw how miserable she looked. She looked terrible. He stepped forward and she stood up.

"Claire, I'm sor-"

"No. Just go. Leave!" she yelled with tears running down her face. Daryl backed away slowly.

"I came back!"

"And if you didn't? You left us! Left me. Did you expect me to run into your arms? And well we're at it, we can just go up to the guard tower and pretend that nothing ever happened! That you didn't screw up!" she shouted angrily and held her stomach.

"Claire ple-"

"No. Hershel was right; I can do this by myself. I just needed a little motivation."

"What are you talking about?" he asked. Claire took something out of her pocket and threw it at him. "What the hell's this? He asked and looked down. Claire crossed her arms.

"Congratulations," she said and went to her cell.

"What is this?" Daryl asked everybody. Rick sighed.

"It's a pregnancy test," he told Daryl.

"A what?" Daryl asked.

"She's pregnant," Rick said. Daryl's face dropped.

"Oh, so this is what you've been doin' while I was gone? Repopulatin'?" Merle joked and patted Daryl on the back.

"Shut up! Rick can I have a word with you?" Daryl's voice croaked. Rick nodded and they went outside to talk. "Is this some kinda sick joke?" he asked.

"No. She found out the day we came back. You should've seen her; she was a mess. Had a break down and everything," Rick told him. Daryl stepped forward.

"But we used…you know…," Daryl whispered. Rick scratched the back of his neck. Daryl started pacing.

"She wanted out. She wanted to take abortion pills," Rick told him. Daryl stopped.

"What?" he asked.

"She didn't want to do it alone."

"And that was her best solution?!"

"Keep it down. Now the only reason she suggested it, was because you left her," Rick firmly said. Daryl started pacing again.

"Let me process this; you're telling me that my girlfriend is pregnant with my child and she wants to give it up?" Daryl asked, getting angry at himself for leaving her.

"We talked her out of it," Rick assured him.

"Me? A father? I can't even look after a fucking goldfish without killing it somehow!" Daryl started panicking. "Is this why she's been feelin' sick?" he asked, remembering how she threw up before he left. Rick nodded.

"You have to make things right. Talk to her. But most of all; support her. She needs you now more than anything else," Rick told him. Daryl nodded and the two went back inside. Claire was in her cell, lying in bed.

"I gotta give it to ya, baby brother. Who woulda guessed that you were a family man?" Merle teased. Daryl shoved his brother.

"You better shut up!" he yelled. Merle laughed.

"You've changed, baby bro."

Daryl ignored him and went to his cell. Merle was right. He had changed.


	19. Chapter 19

It was decided that Merle would stay, as long as he could behave himself. Claire still avoided Daryl at all costs. Whenever he tried to talk to her, she walked away or ignored him. It killed him inside. Even Rick tried talking to her, but she wouldn't budge. She spent the next few days walking around outside and looking after Judith. She was feeding Judith when Merle came inside.

"So you're the lil girl that's carryin' my brother's baby," he teased. She glared at him, "You look awfully familiar, we met?"

Claire put Judith's bottle down and started burping her. "Yeah. You're the asshole that punched me back in Atlanta," she replied. He chuckled.

"I'm a lil regretful. I'm thinkin' if I didn't do that, you woulda been carryin' my baby," he joked. Claire was not amused.

"Please," she smirked, "Don't flatter yourself."

"What's the matter, honey, afraid of a lil challenge?" he mocked. She rolled her eyes and handed Judith to Beth.

"No, I just don't do guys that are old enough to be my father," she retorted. He stepped forward.

"Old? I'm not that old. Whaddya say, sugartits, how about me and you?" he teased her. She took out her machete and held it to his throat.

"Don't call me that," she growled. Merle backed away. She put her machete back and sighed. Then Daryl and Rick came in.

"Everything alright in here?" Daryl asked, feeling the tension.

"Everything's just fine," Claire said and walked out. Daryl grabbed her hand.

"You okay?" he asked. She pulled away and looked at him.

"Don't touch me!" she shouted and walked out. Daryl went to Merle and held his collar.

"What did you say to her?!" He barked. Rick stepped forward.

"Stop," he commanded. Merle pushed Daryl.

"Poor lil girl can't take a joke!" Merle yelled.

"Stay away from her!" Daryl warned his brother. Merle laughed.

"Or what?" Merle taunted. "You gonna kill me? Huh, lil brother?"

"If you even look at her, you'll be out of this prison," Daryl guaranteed and walked out. He looked around for Claire and found her talking to Carl. He went up to them.

"Hey, kid, could you give us a minute?" Daryl asked Carl.

"No, Carl. You don't have to go. Now where were we? Oh yeah, we were talkin' about that story. You know, the one with the asshole that cried wolf," Claire said and glared at Daryl. Carl remained silent.

"Claire, please-" Daryl pleaded.

"I'm sorry, can you come back later? I'm kinda busy talkin' to Carl," she told him and continued talking to Carl. Daryl sighed in frustration and just stood there.

"Fine, meet me up in the guard tower in five minutes," Daryl said and walked away. Claire and Carl continued their conversation and eventually went back inside. Claire went straight to her cell and sat down on her bed. She decided to leave Daryl hanging. She wanted him to see how it felt. She dissembled her handgun and cleaned it. After a while, Daryl appeared at her door.

"What the hell?" he asked. She didn't look up.

"Yeah. It's frustratin', ain't it? It even hurts a little," she told him. He sighed.

"What do want from me?" he asked. Claire looked up at him.

"Right now, it would be nice of you to leave," she said.

"You can't push me away. It's my child."

"Yeah it is. And were you when 'your child' and I needed you?" she asked. Daryl stepped forward.

"I screwed up. But I'm here now because of you. If I'd known about the baby, you know I would've come straight back-"

"Wait, so you only would've come back for the baby? Jesus, Daryl. Do I mean anything to you at all?" she asked. Daryl sighed again.

"I didn't mean it like that," he tried to explain.

"No, of course you didn't."

"If you could just give me a damn chance to explain-"

"There is nothing to explain. You chose to throw this life away."

"Yeah, just like you wanted to throw the baby's life away with them abortion pills."

"Only because I didn't wanna do this without you!" she yelled. At this point everyone was eavesdropping. "You think I asked for this?"

"That doesn't give you the right to kill it!" Daryl yelled. Claire got up.

"I don't believe this. You actually have the nerve to shout at _me_?" she shouted, eyes tearing already. She stepped forward and pushed him. "Get out," she whispered. Daryl just stood there. She pushed him again. "Get out!" she yelled. He didn't move.

"No," he said. "I ain't leaving you again. You, nor the baby. We are a family now. You two are blood, and I ain't throwing that away. Not this time."

Claire shook her head. "Little too late for that. Now please, just go," she sobbed and turned around. Daryl didn't move.

"I chose him because I was scared," he explained. Claire didn't turn around.

"Scared of what?" her voice cracked.

"When I thought I'd lost Merle, you were the next person I cared about. I went with Merle because I scared of losing you. But I was wrong. I was bein' selfish and I'm sorry," he explained. Claire turned around and looked at him.

"How long did it take you to come up with that one?" she smirked and sat on her bed. Daryl sat down next to her. "I thought I asked you to leave," she said and lied down. Daryl leaned forward and stroked her face.

"I love you," he whispered and left her alone. He sat outside her cell and cleaned his arrows. She clutched her stomach and shot up. She needed to puke. She ran out of her cell and down the stairs. Of course, Daryl ran after her as she ran outside and puked. He immediately knelt down next to her and rubbed her back while holding her hair up with his other hand. When she was done, she stared at him. Then she crawled over to him and threw herself in his arms. Daryl was taken aback at first, but held her anyway. Claire started crying.

"I'm so scared," she sobbed. He rubbed her back.

"Me too, honey," he whispered back. The two sat there for a while, caught in each other's embrace.


	20. Chapter 20

Sorry I haven't been updating. I guess I'm suffering from writers block. Please give me some ideas or tell me what you want and I'll try my best to update really quickly. Thanks x


	21. Chapter 21

When Daryl and Claire went back to the cellblock, the group was coming up with a plan.

"We're not leaving." Rick told them.

"We can't stay here," Hershel argued.

"We can't even go outside!" Beth added.

"If Rick says we're not running, we're not running," Glenn said.

"No. Better to live like rats," Merle interrupted. Everybody looked at him.

"You got a better idea?" Rick asked. Merle chuckled.

"Yeah. We shoulda slipped out here last night! If he gets the higher grounds, shoot," he said.

"We ain't scared of that prick!" Daryl said. Merle looked at him.

"You should be. That truck through the fence thing, it was just him ringin' the door bell" Merle told him. Maggie stood up.

"This is all you!" she shouted at Merle.

"What's the difference whose fault it is? What do we do?" Claire asked.

"We can't just sit here," Hershel said. Rick turned around and walked away. "Get back here!" Hershel yelled after him. "You're slippin' Rick. We've all seen it. You once said that this isn't a democracy anymore; now you have to own up to that. I put my family's life in your hands, so get your head clear and do somethin'."

Rick nodded and walked out. Everybody sighed and carried on with what they were doing. Claire put her hair into a ponytail and went to her cell. A few minutes later, Rick walked back in and assigned everyone jobs.

"Take watch. Eyes open, head down," he told Maggie. She nodded and went outside.

"Field's covered with walkers. I didn't see any snipers out there but Maggie's on watch," he said to everyone else.

"I could go up to the guard tower. Take out a few walkers. It'll give you guys a chance to fix the fence," Claire suggested.

"Or use the cars to put the bus back in place," Michonne proposed. Hershel shook his head.

"We can't access the field without burnin' bullets," he told her.

"So we're trapped in here," Glenn interrupted, "There's barely any food or ammo."

"We've been though that before. We'll be alright," Daryl said to him. Glenn sighed.

"That's when it was just us. Before there was a snake in the nest," Glenn smirked. Daryl stepped in front of Glenn.

"Maybe we can go through this again; Merle's stayin' here. He's with us now. Get used to it. All of ya'll," Daryl said and went upstairs. He looked down at Claire and shook his head.

"Seriously, Rick. I don't think Merle living here is really gonna fly," Glenn whispered to Rick.

"I can't kick him out-," Rick tried to say but got interrupted by Glenn.

"I wouldn't ask you to live with Shane after he tried to kill you!"

"Merle has military experience," Hershel butted in. Claire stepped forward.

"Yeah and he may be erratic, but we shouldn't underestimate his loyalty to Daryl," she added. Glenn then suggested that they hand Merle over to the Governor, but got shot down by Claire. Hershel then went to talk to Merle, while Claire went up to Daryl. He was lying on his bed, doing who knows what.

"Hey," she said. He looked up and smiled slightly. She sat down the bed next to him. "I can't hate you for going with Merle. After all, he is your brother," she said. He sat up.

"That's not a good enough excuse to leave you," he said. She shrugged.

"At least you're here now, right?" she asked. Daryl sighed.

"Well yeah. I missed you too damn much," he said. She smiled slightly.

"Yeah. Me too," she said and got up.

"Where you goin'? he asked. She turned around.

"I gotta piss. Jeez," she said. Daryl laughed a bit. She smiled and left the cellblock. _Damn was he glad that they made up. Well, sort of._ On her way back, she noticed Carl looking at something through his binoculars. She stopped and stood next to him. "Whatcha looking at?" she asked. Carl handed her his binoculars. She looked through them and was shocked to see a blond woman walking into the prison. "Oh my God!" she whispered.

"What?" Carl asked worriedly. Claire looked down at him.

"It's Andrea!" she told him. His face dropped. She shoved the binoculars at him and ran inside to alarm the others. "Andrea's here!" she announced. Everybody stood up and looked at her.

"What?" Daryl asked, obviously surprised. Claire grabbed her handgun that was on the table.

"You heard me. Andrea is outside!" she repeated. Nobody moved. "You gonna stand there and stare? C'mon, people!" she told them. They immediately grabbed their weapons and went outside. Andrea was waiting outside the top gate with an armless walker.

"Are you alone?!" Rick yelled. Andrea ignored him.

"Open the gates!" she yelled. Rick obeyed and let her in. As soon as he closed the gate again, he told her to get down on her knees and checked for any weapons or anything.

"I asked if you were alone," Rick said after checking. Andrea nodded.

"I am," she confirmed while catching her breath. Rick took her bag from her.

"Welcome back," he said and helped her up. The group went inside the prison and talked about the Governor. Andrea refused to tell Rick how to get into Woodbury; instead she organized a meeting between Rick and the Governor. Daryl and Hershel agreed to go with him just in case. Claire grabbed her handgun and her vest.

"Whoa whoa where do you think you're goin'?" Daryl tried to stop her.

"I wanna go too. I can't sit in this prison any longer," Claire told him. Daryl stepped closer.

"You can't come," he shot her down. She rolled her eyes.

"For God's sakes, it hasn't even been a month. I'll be fine," she snorted. Daryl looked back at Rick, who nodded. He sighed in defeat.

"Fine," he sighed and grabbed his crossbow. Rick and Hershel drove the Hyundai and Claire and Daryl went on the motorcycle. When they got to the place, Daryl and Claire surveyed the area while Rick went inside. Hershel stayed in the car. After a while a car parked in front of the building and two men plus Andrea jumped out.

"What the hell, why's your boy already in there?" Daryl asked Andrea. She looked surprised.

"He's here?" she asked. Claire nodded.

"Yep," she said. Andrea sighed and went inside. Hershel, Daryl and Claire stood around for a few minutes before Hershel spoke up.

"Maybe I should go inside," he suggested. One of the Governors men grunted.

"No, the Governor thought it's best if he and Rick spoke privately," he said.

"Who the fuck are you?" she smirked.

"Milton," he said. Claire laughed sarcastically.

"Hey, he brought his butler," she joked. Milton frowned.

"I'm his adviser," he corrected.

"What kind of advice?" Daryl interrupted. Milton sighed.

"Planning, you know I'm sorry; I don't feel I need to explain myself to the henchmen," he snapped. Daryl stepped forward.

"You better watch your mouth, Sunshine," he growled.

"Look, if you and I are gonna be out here pointing guns at each other all day, do me a favor; shut your mouth," the other man coldly said to Daryl. Claire stepped in front of him.

"You wanna rephrase that?" Claire barked. The man smiled.

"Oh he's got his bitch out here, too," he teased.

"Go fuck yourself," Claire told him. Daryl lightly pulled her back.

"We don't need to do this," Hershel mediated. Claire sighed. "If all goes South in there, we'll be at each other's throats soon enough."

Claire and Daryl backed away. "There's no reason not to use this time we have together to explore the issue ourselves," Milton suggested. Everybody looked at him.

"Boss said to sit tight and shut up," the other man shot him down.

"Don't you mean 'the Governor'?" Daryl smirked.

"It's a good thing; they're sitting down, especially after what happened. They're gonna work it out, no one wants another battle," Milton went on.

Daryl snorted, "I wouldn't call that a 'battle'," he sneered. Milton rolled his eyes.

"I would call it a battle and I did," he retorted and held up a book, "I recorded it."

"For what?" Claire asked him.

"Somebody's gotta keep a record of what we've been through. It'll be a part of our history," he explained to her. Hershel nodded.

"That makes sense," he agreed. Milton shrugged.

"Got dozens of interviews with-" he got interrupted by the groans of walkers. Claire quickly grabbed her machete and went towards them with Daryl and the other man behind her. They saw two walkers coming towards them. Daryl lowered his crossbow.

"For you," he told the man.

"After you," he retorted and signaled Daryl to make his move. Claire rolled her eyes and stabbed both of the walkers.

"Pussy," the man mumbled to Daryl. When all the walkers were down, Daryl searched the bodies for a pack of cigarettes. He lighted one and offered the man. Claire went over to Daryl and grabbed the cigarette from his mouth. She threw it to the ground and put it out with her foot. He was a bit irritated but soon got over it.

"You in the military or somethin'?" he asked the man. He shook his head.

"Nah, just hate these things. After what they did; wife, kids…," he drifted off. Daryl looked at Claire and down at her stomach.

"Sucks," he said and looked back at the man. There was a moment of silence before the man started speaking.

"You know this is a joke, right?" he told Claire and Daryl. They nodded. "They're not working anything out. Sure, they'll do their little dance and tomorrow, next day, they'll give the word."

"I know," Daryl said and looked at Claire.

"She you're wife?" the man changed the subject and looked at Claire. She half smiled and looked at Daryl.

"Nah. But she should be," Daryl joked. The man smiled and nodded. Before Claire could say anything, Rick and the Governor came out. They glared at each other before climbing into their cars. Daryl and Claire followed and climbed onto the motorcycle. When they got to the prison, everyone gathered inside the cellblock.

"So I met this 'Governor'," Rick announced, "sat with him for quite a while."

"Just the two of you?" Merle enquired. Rick nodded. "Should've got 'im while you had the chance, bro."

Rick ignored him and continued: "he wants the prison. He wants us gone. Dead. He wants us dead for what we did to Woodbury." There was a moment of silence. "We're going to war."


	22. Chapter 22

The next day, Claire woke up at noon for some reason. She went outside and saw Glenn fixing up the fence.

"Mornin'," she said to him. He looked at the pocket watch Hershel had given him and looked back at her.

"Afternoon," he corrected her. She smiled slightly.

"Why didn't you guys wake me up?" she inquired. Glenn shrugged.

"You looked peaceful," he joked. She shook her head and snorted.

"Where's Daryl?" she asked and looked around for any sign of him.

"He's talking to Merle," Glenn said. Claire nodded.

"Well I guess I'll just let them talk. Need any help?" she offered. He nodded and handed her a hammer.

"Just put that gate in place. Shouldn't take too much," he directed her.

"Whopee," she smirked and went to work. When she was done, she and Glenn went up to the catwalk to help Rick. A few hours later, they went back to the cellblock to eat.

"Oh God, I am starvin'!" Claire exclaimed as she sat down.

"Yeah well in a few weeks, you'll have two stomachs to feed," Glenn added. She looked at him and smiled.

"That's right, Glenn. In fact, I think some people are gonna have to sacrifice their rations for my little baby," she joked, causing a small laugher around the room as Daryl walked in.

"What's so funny?" he asked as he took his ration. Claire looked at Glenn and grinned.

"I was just tellin' Glenn over here that when the baby comes, he's gonna have to cough up his portions for a while," she joked. Daryl smiled a bit.

"Yeah, kid's daddy's gonna need it," he smirked. Glenn laughed.

"In your dreams," he snorted.

"Hey, play nice," Maggie jokingly told Glenn.

"Where're Michonne and Merle?" Beth asked, causing everybody to look around. Daryl and Rick put down their bowls and got up.

"Somethin's wrong," Rick said and he and Daryl left the cell block.

"What's up with them?" Claire asked. Maggie and Glenn shrugged. When they were done eating, Claire went outside to look for Daryl. She waited for a while and finally saw them walking towards her, "what's up?"

"They're gone. Merle took her to the Governor. Imma go after 'em," Daryl filled her in. She nodded.

"I'm in," she said and followed him to his motorcycle. Once they were on, Daryl turned to Rick.

"We'll be back," he promised. Rick nodded and opened the gates for them.

"We'll find him," Claire comforted him. He nodded. The rest of the ride was silent until they arrived at the designated area, where the Governor was supposed to meet Rick.

"I'll take a look around. Stay here," he instructed. She nodded and watched him go. After a few minutes, she heard the sound of someone sobbing. She immediately made her way to Daryl. When she found him, she realized that he was the one crying. He was looking down at a walker that was feeding on a body. When Claire looked at the walker, she instantly recognized it. _It was Merle._ Claire covered her mouth with her hand in complete shock.

"Daryl…," she breathed. He ignored her and continued to stand there and cry. Claire kept her distance and let him deal with it; it was his brother after all. The walker slowly got up and lunged itself at Daryl. Daryl pushed him back, but it lunged itself at him two more times before Daryl tackled him to the ground and stabbed it's head a few times. Claire ran towards him and cradled him as he lied on the floor crying. "Daryl, I'm so sorry, baby," she whispered and rubbed his back. He held on to her for dear life and realized something; Claire and the baby was officially all he had left.

**9 months later**

The prison was more or less the new 'Woodbury' now. There was way more people, which meant a better prison. The people all came from Woodbury, after the Governor abandoned it.

Claire's eyes fluttered open and looked down at the baby bump. It was huge. Daryl's arm was draped around her and his hand was on her stomach. She smiled when she saw that his hand was cradling the unborn baby. She slowly turned around and kissed him, causing him to wake up too. When his eyes opened, the only thing he saw were two huge blue eyes looking directly at him.

"Morning," she whispered. His lips curled into a smile.

"Hey," his voice cracked. She bit her lip before kissing him again.

"You need a haircut," she told him as she sat up. He lightly snorted and sat up, too.

"Whatever," he muttered. Claire felt her stomach and her face dropped.

"I felt another kick!" she announced happily and grabbed Daryl's hand. He felt it for himself.

"Well I'll be damned," he smirked and smiled. The two shared a laugh before getting dressed and going outside to have breakfast.

"Morning, Mr. Dixon!" someone greeted. Claire giggled because of how irritated he was getting.

"Hi Daryl and Claire!" someone else said. Claire smiled and waved. She felt so cool. Just as the couple sat down to eat, a kid with glasses came up to them.

"Good morning Mr. and Mrs. Dixon!" he said happily. Daryl groaned irritably and looked up at the kid.

"We ain't married," he clarified. The kid went red.

"Oh, I-I'm so sorry, I didn't know. I just thought 'cos of the baby and all…oh God I feel like an idiot!" he panicked. Claire laughed.

"Its okay, Patrick. How are you?" she asked nicely. He awkwardly smiled and franticly fiddled with his hands as he answered.

"I'm g-good. I just wanted to thank Mr. Dixon for the deer he brought back yesterday. It was a real treat," Patrick nervously said. Daryl sighed.

"Whatever," he said. Patrick nodded and stuck out his hand.

"It would be an honor to shake your hand, sir," Patrick said. Daryl looked at Claire, who was holding back a laugh.

"Go on, superstar," she teased. Daryl sighed again and licked his fingers before shaking his hand. Patrick didn't seem to mind though. When he left, Daryl turned to Claire again.

"Bring one fuckin' deer back and you're the next Elvis Pressley. What the hell?" he complained and stuffed his face.

"They adore you, Daryl," Claire told him. He snorted a bit.

"Adoration gets you nowhere," he retorted. She rolled her eyes.

"Look where it got me. You adore me and now I'm about to push your kid out of my vagina," she joked. He scrunched up his face.

"Damn it, Claire. I'm eatin'!" he said disgustedly and took a sip of water. Claire laughed.

"You're acting like an eight-grader in the middle of sex-ed. What's so gross about vaginas? You used mine and now I'm pregnant," she continued. Daryl spat his water out, which caused her to laugh even more.

"Stop," he said with a childish grin across his face.

"Vaginas!" she yelled, which made people stare. Daryl shook his head in disgust and got up.

"Lost my damn appetite," he mumbled and handed his bowl to Carol. Claire quickly finished her meal and waddled over to Rick and Carl, who were by the pig pen.

"Hello, Farmer Rick and Rick Junior!" she sang. Carl looked up at her and smiled. Then he looked at her stomach.

"It's gotten big," he commented. She looked at her stomach and smiled too.

"Yeah, I'm due any day now," she said, "felt another kick earlier on… Oh my God! There it is again!"

She grabbed Carl and Ricks hand and let them feel. Rick smiled as he felt the tiny kicks.

"Incredible," Carl said softly. Claire tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

"Sure is," she agreed, "can't believe I'm actually gonna be a mom."Rick smiled slightly. "Holy shit, right?"

Carl laughed lightly as she ruffled his hair before going back to the cellblock with Rick. As they were walking, they saw Daryl, Michonne, Sasha, Bob and Zack loading the Hyundai with guns. Claire waddled over to Daryl and put her hands on her hips.

"Where do you think you're goin'?" she asked. Daryl sighed and put his crossbow down.

"Supply run," he answered. Claire raised her brow.

"What if I have the baby?" she asked. He stepped forward.

"I'll be here," he whispered and held her face. Claire stood on her tip toes and kissed him.

"You better be here," she purred and bit her lip. Daryl smiled cheekily and touched her belly.

"Love you," he told her and kissed her forehead.

"Dixon, let's go!" Zach yelled. Claire smiled as Daryl picked up his crossbow and swung it over his shoulder.

"Love you too," she said and watched him get into the driver's seat. He closed the door and stuck his head out of the window while reversing.

"Hey, Grimes! Look after my girlfriend…and my child!" he yelled. Rick nodded and smiled as he watched the car drive away. Claire waddled into the cellblock and went up to her cell. She sat on her bed and smiled at herself.

_He'll be alright, Claire. _She thought to herself and lied down. _He always is._


	23. Chapter 23

Oh shit. Something was wrong. Claire felt her belly and swiftly shot up.

"Oh fuck!" she screamed and clutched her stomach. Rick and Maggie ran up to her.

"What's the matter?!" Rick asked her and saw her clutching her stomach. Claire looked at him and gulped.

"It's comin'."

Rick and Maggie's faces dropped. "Get Hershel!" he commanded Maggie. She nodded and sprinted downstairs.

"Dad! It's comin'! Claire's baby's comin'!" she yelled as she ran to her father's cell. He immediately got up and went upstairs to Claire.

"W-where's…Daryl!?" she yelled, trying her best to ignore the pain. Rick and Maggie looked at each other.

"He's not back yet," Rick told her. She shook her head.

"I have to wait," she told them.

"You can't," Hershel said. Just then, Carl appeared.

"Is it time?" he asked. Claire nodded then screamed in pain. Rick rushed to her side and grabbed her hand. She instantly squeezed it with all her might. Rick tried to overlook the pain and tried to keep Claire calm.

"Maggie, I need you to go outside and wait for Daryl. Should be here anytime now," Rick directed. She didn't say anything and sprinted outside to wait for the redneck to return, meanwhile Hershel told Carl to get some towels.

"What's wrong?" Karen asked Maggie, noticing the worry in her face.

"Where's Daryl?!" she yelled. Karen shrugged. "Claire's in labor!"

Karen gulped and nodded, "I'll ask Carol if she's seen 'im," she said and ran to Carol. Maggie saw Beth walking towards her.

"Seen Daryl?" she asked. Beth shook her head. "Her water broke," she told her sister. Beth rubbed the back of her neck and waited with Maggie.

In the interim, Claire was still squeezing Rick's hand while Hershel waited for any sign of the baby.

"Breathe," Rick told her calmly. She obeyed and took lots of short and quick breathes.

"He's…so…dead," Claire growled, referring to Daryl. Rick smiled slightly and rubbed the top her hand with his thumb. Just as Maggie and Beth were starting to get worried, they heard the sound of the gates opening and spotted the silver Hyundai. They both sighed with relief and watched the car come closer. As soon as it stopped, Glenn, Michonne, Daryl, Sasha, Bob and Tyreese got out. Maggie ran to Daryl and pulled his arm towards Cellblock C.

"What the hell?" he asked. Maggie stopped and turned around. Then the sound of Claire screaming filled the air. "Claire!?" Daryl yelled and sprinted to the cellblock. He dropped his crossbow on the way, but just carried on running to Claire. When he got to her cell, he saw her sweating and squeezing Rick's hand while. He stood there for a while, just lost in the moment.

"DARYL!" she yelled, causing him to snap back. He quickly went inside and Rick gave him Claire's hand.

"Claire you need to push," Hershel told her. She squeezed Daryl's hand as she pushed with all her might.

"It feels like I'm taking a shit!" she shouted. Rick and Carl laughed slightly.

"Push!" Hershel commanded. Claire screamed as she pushed and pushed. Daryl ignored the pain in his hand and focused on Claire.

"Just look at me," Daryl told her. She looked at him and smiled.

"You so owe me a drink!" she snarled. He smiled back. Then she pushed again.

"I see the head!" Hershel announced. "Keep on pushing!"

She obeyed and pushed again, squeezing the life out of Daryl's hand in the process.

"Just a bit more," Hershel said. Claire closed her eyes and pushed again, screaming in pain. She opened her eyes when she heard the sound of a baby crying and saw Hershel holding it. "Congratulations; it's a boy," he announced. Claire started crying with happiness and looked at Daryl. His facial expression was priceless; he looked as though he had given birth himself. Hershel carefully handed the baby to Claire and cut her umbilical cord. She smiled as she looked down at him. He had Daryl's emerald eyes and chocolate brown hair.

"He looks like you," she said to Daryl. He leaned in to see for himself. It was true. Claire looked back down at her son. "Hey, sweetheart. You're so beautiful!" she said to him. Then Beth, who was holding Judith, Carol, Glenn, Sasha and Maggie, appeared and smiled at Daryl and Claire. "See the sexy man with the hypnotizin' green eyes? That's your daddy. He's gonna teach you how to hunt and use a crossbow, then you can get your mommy some squirrel," she said to the baby. Everyone chuckled and Daryl smiled proudly. "And that's Rick, but you can call him Officer Friendly. That handsome young man is Carl; Officer Friendly Junior. And that beautiful li'l girl in Beth's arms is Judith. She's Officer Friendly's little girl and if you try anything, he ain't gonna be so 'friendly' anymore," she joked. Rick laughed. "See the cute Asian guy and the pretty brunette? Those are your God-parents. And that's Sasha, and Carol and that over there is Hershel. He's gonna teach you how to perform CPR, so when you give daddy a hard time and he has a heart attack, you can save his sorry ass," she told the baby. Daryl laughed at the last part.

"Yeah and mom's gonna teach you every single cussword there is," he joked. Claire smiled cockily and stroked her son's face before handing him over to Daryl. "Hey there," he whispered. "You're quite handsome, huh?"

"What are we gonna call 'im?" Claire asked as she put her pants back on. Daryl looked at her.

"You decide," he told her. She sighed.

"Zachary?" she suggested. Daryl looked down at his son.

"Zachary Dixon…" he repeated. Claire nodded.

"Or Carl Dixon," she joked and looked at Carl. He was smiling.

"Rick Dixon, Glenn Dixon, Oscar Dixon, Andrew Dixon, Hershel Dixon even Daryl Dixon," she joked some more. Daryl laughed as Claire gulped and bit her lip. "Harley Dixon? As in 'Harley Davidson'," she proposed. Daryl looked at her again.

"Harley Dixon…it's perfect," he agreed. Claire smiled proudly.

"Still can't believe he came out of my vagina," she said jokingly, causing laughter. Daryl handed Harley back to Claire. "My little baby Harley. I love you so much!" she whispered and gently hugged him.

"We need to clean 'im up and get 'im fed," Hershel mentioned. Claire nodded.

"Fed…right; breastfeedin'," she said nervously as she handed Harley to Hershel. He took him to be washed and dressed. Eventually, everybody, except for Daryl, Glenn and Maggie cleared the cell.

"Congratulations!" Maggie told Daryl and Claire. The parents smiled proudly. "We want to give you guys somethin', now that you're a family," Maggie said and smiled at Glenn, "the guard tower. It's yours. We're gonna take the other one further up. It's not _as _big, but you need the space," she told them. A huge smile formed on Claire's face.

"Really? Thanks!" she said. Maggie and Glenn nodded and gave Daryl and Claire some privacy.

"I am so tired!" Claire complained as her head dropped down onto the pillow. When she noticed that he didn't say anything, she slowly lifted her head and noticed his sad expression. "What's the matter?" she asked. Daryl looked at her and sighed.

"Lost Zach today," he announced. Claire's face dropped.

"Beth's boyfriend?" she whispered. He nodded. Claire sat up and lifted his chin up.

"He was a good kid. I'm sorry you had to see that," she said to him. He nodded and smiled weakly.

"I can't believe I'm a d-dad," he said. Claire smiled. "What if I'm like _him_? What if I-,"

"Daryl, stop. You're not 'him' and you never will be. You are the strongest, most incredible, good-hearted man I've ever known. You gotta give yourself some credit. Whatever he told you when you were a kid was completely wrong; you're not worthless. You mean everything to me and Harley. You're not stupid, you're not trash and he didn't deserve to have a son like you. Now, I know you're gonna be a great father. It's time you knew it too," she told him. He gulped and slowly nodded. Claire smiled again and kissed him.

"Get some rest," he whispered when they broke apart for air. Before Claire could say anything else, Hershel returned to the cell with Harley. He was dressed in a cute blue outfit. Hershel handed him to Claire and taught her how to breastfeed. Once she got the hang of it, she fed Harley and Hershel left.

"You like that? Wait until you try the real stuff," she joked, causing Daryl to chuckle.

"Yeah you're gonna love that shit!" he agreed and looked at Harley. He still couldn't believe it. _Damn._


	24. Chapter 24

Hey! I know it's been a while, so I've decided to just give you this until I sort myself out. See, the problem is, my vacation's over…which means school, which means work, homework, detention and all of that shit. Be warned though, this is a really crappy chapter.

-crowfliesmyass

* * *

"Oh fuck! It's hungry again!" Daryl groaned. Claire's head shot up to the sound of a baby crying softly.

"I fed 'im like two hours ago!" she complained and got up. She slowly lifted Harley out of his crib and lifted her shirt up. While he was feeding, Claire looked down at Daryl, who was lying in bed. "Lazy ass," she muttered. He slowly lifted his head and looked at her.

"Which one of us has milk in their boobs?" he sarcastically asked. Claire rolled her eyes and started burping Harley. "If it helps, I think you're doin' a good job," he told her. She smiled.

"As I said before, I am a natural," she said cockily and started rocking Harley to sleep. Daryl snorted.

"Yeah you are," he agreed and sat up. Claire carefully put her son back into his crib and sat down on the bed, opposite Daryl.

"You okay?" she asked and bit her lip. He sighed and nodded.

"Just tired of losin' people, that's all," he admitted. Claire leaned forward and hugged him.

"It's gonna be okay, sweetheart," she whispered. He nodded and kissed her head. Then they heard gunshots.

"Stay here," he commanded. She nodded and crawled back into bed.

"Hey, be careful!" she said to him. He nodded and made his way out of the guard tower, to where he heard the gunshots. As he was running, he saw Rick running towards it, too.

"What the hell?!" he yelled. Rick shrugged and the two continued running towards the cellblock. When they got there, it was complete chaos. Rick, Glenn and Daryl immediately started clearing out all the walkers, while Carol led all of the survivors out. When they were done, Glenn randomly got attacked by a walker. Daryl quickly shot it down and found out that it was Patrick. Dr. S came up with a theory; the people were all infected with some kind of flu and everyone in the cellblock could be infected.

"We gotta discuss this; we'll meet in a few minutes. First lets clear the cell," Daryl instructed. Everyone nodded and got to work. Once they were done, they when to the library for a meeting.

"Its spread," Hershel started off, "everyone who survived the attack in cell block D; Sasha, Caleb and now others."

Daryl looked at the ground. "Jesus," he muttered. He was worried.

"So what do we do?" Carol asked. Hershel looked at her and sighed.

"First things first; cell block A is isolation. We keep the sick people there like we tried with Karen and David."

"What the hell we gonna do 'bout that?" Daryl asked, remembering their previous encounter.

"Ask Rick to look into it. Try to make a timeline-who's where when. But what are we going to do to stop this?" Carol said, changing the subject.

"There is no stopping it. You get it, you have to go through it," Hershel said. Then everyone heard a familiar voice from behind.

"But it just kills you?" Michonne cut in. Everyone turned to look at her. She was leaning against the door, with her arms folded.

"The illness doesn't," Hershel answered, "the symptoms do. We need antibiotics."

Daryl quickly intervened, "we've been through every pharmacy nearby, and then some."

Hershel nodded. "That veterinary collage at West Peachtree Tech, that's one place people may not have thought to raid for medication. The drugs for animals there are the same we need."

"That's 50 miles. Too big a risk before. Ain't now; Imma take a group out. Best not waste any more time," Daryl said and stood up. He slung his crossbow over his shoulder.

"I'm in." Everybody looked at Michonne.

Hershel sighed. "You haven't been exposed; Daryl has. You get in a car with him-"

"He's already given me fleas," she insisted. Hershel chuckled.

"I can lead the way, I know where everything's kept."

Daryl shook his head. "When we're out there, it's always the same. Sooner or later we gotta run," he refused. Everybody looked at each other. Hershel nodded.

"I can draw you a map," he offered. Daryl nodded. "There are other precautions I feel we should take."

"Like what?" Carol asked.

"There's no telling how long it'll be before Daryl and his group return. Wouldn't it make sense for us to separate the most vulnerable? We can use the administration building. Separate office, separate room."

"Who are the 'most vulnerable'?" Glenn asked, thinking about Maggie.

"The very young. Claire and Harley, Beth and Judith, Carl…" Hershel listed. Daryl nodded.

"I'll go tell 'er,"" he suggested. Hershel shook his head.

"No. You can't go near her or the baby until this all blows over," he instructed strictly. Daryl nodded again.

"Let's go, then," he told Michonne. The two went outside to prepare.

Meanwhile, Claire was outside, holding Harley.

"C'mon sweetheart, you gotta go to sleep," she whispered and gently rocked him in her arms. She smiled as she watched his green eyes slowly shut. She kissed his forehead "That's my good boy."

"Claire!" someone called out. She spun around and saw Maggie. She smiled.

"Hey," she said. Maggie didn't smile back.

"You gotta go into quarantine. Somethin's goin' on, there's an illness spreading. You gotta take Harley."

Claire was shocked. "What? An illness? Where's the hell's Daryl?" she asked. Maggie sighed.

"He's been exposed. There was an incident this mornin'," she explained. Claire frowned.

"What does that mean?" she asked. Maggie sighed again.

"Please just get your things. Carl's droppin' in later to get the crib and whatever you need. Just go."

Claire nodded and went up to the guard tower to pack. When she was done, she went to the administration building and spotted Beth and Judith.

"Hey," she said. Beth looked down at Harley and smiled.

"Hello," the teenager muttered. "I'm takin' that room over there. You can take this one."

"Thanks."

And from then, Claire was officially quarantined.

* * *

Told you it was crappy.


End file.
